Rotorua Specialist School armed with more recycling knowledge

(From left) Scott Brown, PJ, Caleb, Adam and Golnaz Nazem. Photo / Supplied

There were plenty of questions answered and surprises as a local school took a field trip to the Recycling Centre.

Rotorua Specialist School did the trip to learn more about how the rubbish and recycling service works in Rotorua.

As part of their curriculum, classes 1a and 2 have spent the past few months learning about how recycling works, and why it is important to be responsible with our waste so that it doesn't end up in our lakes, the ocean, or pollute the land.

The main focus of the trip was to highlight the basics of recycling, how easy recycling is to do at home, and why it is important to recycle correctly.

The students came prepared with their own questions to ask Scott Brown, central North Island regional manager of Smart Environmental, and Rotorua Lakes Council waste minimisation officer Golnaz Nazem.

PJ asked why soft plastics shouldn't go into the recycling bin.

Scott explained that because soft plastics are light for their size, they are expensive to recycle, and also have to travel a long way to be recycled overseas because New Zealand does not have the facilities to recycle them.

Soft plastics can also clog the machines at Materials Recycling Facilities, which is where the recycling is sorted after the collection trucks pick it up.

Caleb was interested to learn about how bottles are recycled.

Scott said that milk bottles need to be rinsed out, and the bottle lids should be put into the rubbish bin.

The class also suggested that they could be collected to be used in school craft projects.

Glass bottles need to be rinsed out and put into the blue crate. Bottle caps go into the rubbish bin.

Scott talked about how glass bottles can be recycled repeatedly to make new bottles or jars.

Adam learnt that tin cans can be recycled but you need to clean out the leftover food first.

Golnaz explained that cleaning the recycling items before you put them into the recycling bin stops unpleasant smells that can attract mice or birds.

Most importantly, removing leftover food and drink from recyclable items prevents them from contaminating other recycling. Contaminated items can cause your recycling bin to not be collected from the kerbside.

The biggest surprise to the students was the huge amount of recycling that was collected from the kerbside in Rotorua, on one Friday alone.

The group left with more recycling knowledge to share with friends and whānau, and the tools to help reduce the amount of incorrectly recycled items ending up in landfills.

If your school is interested in learning more about recycling or would like to be involved in a waste minimisation workshop, contact info@rotorualc.nz.

For more information on the kerbside service in Rotorua and how to improve recycling habits, visit www.rotorualakescouncil.nz.