'Recycler - The Rapping Robot'
8 February 2007
RecyclerHelping the world recycleRecycler
 
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At Forefield Juniors, we have been learning about the environment. Mr Taggart, from a charity called Waste Watch, came to tell us more about how we can conserve energy and help to save the planet. He brought a very special guest with him...

Recycler
The Rapping Robot!

Click to enlarge
 
Recycler the Rapping Robot

Recyler has been featured on Blue Peter and has even been awarded a 'Green' Blue Peter Badge for helping the environment.

Recycler is an INCREDIBLE creation! It can sing, dance, and move its arms and head. What is even more amazing is that Recycler is made entirely from reused, recycled and recycleable materials!

Look at the pictures below and try to answer the questions. You can click on each picture for a closer look, or you can hold your mouse pointer over the pictures to show the answers.

Recycler's head is made from an old skateboarding helmet. Can you see what its eyes are?

Its chest is made from recycled plastic. What are the coverings of its arms made from?
Recycler's tummy is made from reused plastic drinks bottles. What other reused items can you see inside them?
Its eyes are made from old camera lenses. It has old plastic tubing on its arms. Its tummy contains shredded paper, used postage stamps and various old fabrics.
 

Recycler's message is that we are creating too much waste and we must do something about it. In the past, our waste has mainly gone into landfill sites; huge holes in the ground that we simply dump our rubbish into. When the hole is full, another site is found and the same thing happens.

Some of our waste is bio-degradable, which means it breaks down and becomes part of the earth without causing any damage. However, a lot of our waste may take hundreds of years to break down and may contain chemicals that poison the land and contaminate our rivers.

The chart on the right shows the kinds of things that make up our waste.

Breakdown of waste materials
 

What can we do to help?

There are three things that we can do to stop us producing so much waste:
Reduce

A lot of our waste comes from unnecessary packaging. Do we really need biscuits to be individually wrapped, placed in a plastic tray, then sealed in plastic and placed in a cardboard box?

Try to buy items that use as little packaging as possible. Most companies will have a website address or a customer care phone number on their products. If you think they are being wasteful, let them know of your concerns.

Excess packaging
Reuse

Many things that we simply throw away can often be reused. Next time you go shopping, why not take along some used carrier bags instead of getting new ones? Many supermarkets sell reusable bags, and when they eventually wear out they will be replaced free of charge. Some are even offering extra loyalty points to people who reuse their old shopping bags.

What other items can you think of that you could reuse?

Shopping bags can be reused.
Recycle
Over half of our waste is recycleable. This means it can be turned from waste back into something useful. This fleece hat is made from recycled plastic bottles. In Sefton we can have glass bottles and jars, cans and foil, and paper collected from our doorsteps each week for recycling. There are also a number of recycling centres in our local area where we can recycle other objects such as plastic containers. Click HERE to see a map of recycling centres in and around Crosby.
This fleece hat is made from recycled plastic bottles!
 
Forefield pupils with Mr Taggart and Recycler

For more information about recycling, visit

www.recyclenow.com

For fun activities, quizzes and competitions go to

Recycler's Fun Page.

Please Note: Clicking the above links will open the RecycleNow website in a new window. We are not responsible for content hosted outside the Forefield Juniors site.
 
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