Welcome to the Teachers Resources area
The Wastebuster programme has been designed to support all areas of in-school waste reduction.
Here you will find:
- A wide range of cross-curricular teaching activities and resources for your class and school including video-rich programmes of work, interactive assemblies and games
- Online waste audits to monitor progress, waste reduction guidance and certificates of achievement
- A Think area to explore the theory behind waste reduction, reuse and recycling
- A See area to watch inspirational, practical and useful films on all types of waste and recycling
- A Do area containing links to waste reduction activities and organisations with useful teaching activities, schemes and projects
- A useful Green Pages Directory containing links and information on a wide range of environmental organisations, products and services
- A video library containing Wastebuster films, interviews and event videos
- A stills gallery for project activity and inspirational images
- A wide range of campaign materials including downloadable Wastebuster posters and stickers for all types of in school campaigning e.g. food waste or paper recycling
- A case study area to look at other schools Wastebuster/ Eco-projects and to document and share your own
- A school council area with ideas, activities and resources for teachers and for children in eco-committees
- An interactive Kids Bin with learning tools, games, ideas, tools and resources for children
- Guides for how your school can simply and easily reduce waste to support work towards all levels of Eco-Schools accreditation
- A Resource Advisor search facility to find environmental education resources developed by a wide range of organisations and rated by you!
- Links to competitions and projects with bespoke waste reduction or recycling activities e.g. the Sport into Schools London 2012 Inspire project
Following login all teaching resource options will appear in the sub-menu above.
New! The Busta and Pong Recycling Song
Click here to listen to the dangerously catchy song from the dynamic recycling duo!
Download the sing-a-long lyrics for the Busta and Pong recycling song.
Wastebuster in the Curriculum
Wastebuster link the priorities of national environmental policies and initiatives to provide schools with a simple and effective means of introducing the principles of waste reduction, and guidance on how to embed these principles into the heart of school life - through its teaching, its fabric and its day-today practices:
- Raising achievement across the curriculum: especially with respect to PSHE, Citizenship and Education for Sustainable Development.
- Involving and educating young people about sustainable issues: by making the issues relevant and interesting for them through activities that also enhance learning and widen a pupil's experience.
- The development of thinking skills by providing opportunities: for children to make connections between curriculum subjects.
- Encouraging schools to employ often overlooked areas of learning: such as the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to make value judgments.
Curriculum
The Wastebuster programme resources are cross curricular and accompanied by clear guidance explaining how teachers might explore waste and sustainability in the curriculum and cultivate the knowledge, values and skills needed to address waste issues.
Campus
Wastebuster provides a framework that your school can work within to review your environmental performance on waste. This may lead to further analysis of other issues i.e. energy or water, a reduction in 'whole-life' costs, purchasing with environmental consideration and whole school policies on reducing, reusing, recycling and repairing.
Community
Wastebuster provides an opportunity for your school to maximise communications to promote awareness, raise profile, share best practice and partner with other local and global schools in environmental action, resource efficiency programmes, sustainable consumption and waste minimisation initiatives.
The programme supports the commitment to care:
- for oneself;
- for each other
- across cultures, distances and generations; and
- for the environment itself (far and near).
Wastebuster links with national initiatives
Building strong partnerships between schools, local authorities, local support networks and organisations that support schools on their path to sustainability is a key aspect of the Wastebuster project.
Wastebuster specialise in the topic of Waste to support schools work towards all levels Eco-schools accreditation.
Wastebuster Eco-Schools Guides explain how Wastebuster resources can support your schools work towards all levels of Eco-Schools accreditation.
Click here to see the Wastebuster Eco-Schools Guides, how the Wastebuster programme fits with the Eco-Schools 9-step school improvement process and for schools working towards Bronze, Silver and Green flags.
Wastebuster's characters Busta & Pong feature in WRAP's Recycle Now Schools campaign and front WRAP's online resources for primary schools.
To register with Recycle Now and download these free resources, click here.
To see how Wastebuster works with Recycle Now click here.
The Wastebuster programme links to the PSHE elements of the Healthy Schools programme to help children learn to live more sustainably by enjoying and achieving and making a positive contribution to their school and local community.
There are links between Wastebuster and the Healthy Schools programme in relation to extensive PSHE elements of the programme.
The Pod – EDF Energy’s programme for greener schools
www.jointhepod.org is an interactive website for teachers that provides free resources about energy, waste, transport, water, biodiversity and climate science, including lesson plans, activities, games and information packs, all with cross curricular links. The Pod also runs national campaigns Waste Week and Switch-Off Fortnight, which are designed to help get the whole school, parents and the local community engaged in living a more sustainable life.
All Pod activities have been endorsed by Eco-Schools, and completing any activity on the Pod will help with a school’s application for a bronze, silver and green flag Eco-Schools award.
Wastebuster's character Busta will be appearing in the next Pod and Eco-Schools ezine, which for the first time will be student facing. The ezine is due out in June; in the mean time you can read previous editions here.
Learning Outside the Classroom
Wastebuster Education Centre visits are to be central aspect to children’s learning experience rather than as a bolt on to learning;
- To provide young people with a memorable, inspiring and engaging experience outside the classroom, to transform learning and raise achievement.
- To provide a means for children to learn in context, to learn by practical engagement, and to learn by personal discovery.
- To better enable schools, local authorities and other organisations working with young people to manage activities safely and efficiently;
- To demonstrate the unique contribution learning outside the classroom experiences make to young people’s lives;
- To provide access to information, knowledge, expertise, guidance and resources;
- To offer learning experiences of high quality;
- To identify ways of engaging parents, carers and the wider community in learning outside the classroom.
- To enable children to acquire new skills, work collaboratively with others and develop a better sense of themselves and their potential1.
1LOtC mission statement 2010
All Wastebuster education centres were awarded the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality badge in 2010.
“Education for sustainable development enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now, without damaging the planet for the future.”
The English National Curriculum, QCA
“Education for Sustainable Development is an emerging but dynamic concept that encompasses a new vision of education that seeks to empower people of all ages to assume responsibility for creating a sustainable future.”
UNESCO
“Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) motivates, equips and involves individuals and social groups in reflecting on how we currently live and work, in making informed decisions and creating ways to work towards a more sustainable world. ESD is about learning for change.”
IUCN - Commission on Education and Communication
