Pelewatte Recycling
During a few of our geography periods, our class took some time to collaborate with the Recycling and Sustainability service group at our school to help with clearing out the “Recycling Room” and organising some of our school’s waste to be given to a local Recycling Centre, not far from us.
The first thing we did was organise the waste materials that had filled the Recycling Room over the coarse of a few months. We organised the trash by flattening and sorting things that could and could not be recycled with the supervision of Mr. Lockwood. After that, we loaded up the school’s pick-up truck driven by the Maintenance with the flattened cardboard to be send to the Recycling Centre which the rest of us walked too (it was only a 5-10 minute distance).
Lucca, Sam & Thisathma help load the truck with flattened cardboard at school (all pictures by me)
When we got to the small centre where we met with the people working there. We exchange the materials for a set price (see below).
Huirong and Mr. Lockwood analysing the our school’s waste brought to the Recycle Centre near Pelewatte Junction
Materials -> Price Trade (Rs/Kg)
Plastic bottles -> 40
Copper -> 650
Aluminium -> 100
Beer/Soda cans -> 40
Large Batteries -> 100
Small Batteries -> 50
Books -> 10
Some of the items were rejected for submission but the ones that weren’t, were put on a scale to see the amount we collected and money we could exchange it for. In total we raised about Rs. 1170 (which we gave back to the sustainability service group). After we finished that process, we left back to school. We sorted and threw the trash in the dumpsters that could not be recycled by the Centre or our school sadly.
Here is a Google Map image that shows the route we took from school to the Recycling Centre in Pelewatte (and back)
Not only did we as a group had fun together helping in with a hands on activity and collaborating, I think we all learned something new about our local community and what is being done with the waste we throw away and tend to forget about in our school. Not only this, we played a part in helping our school and the community by recycling waste and raised a bit of cash for a good cause.
Group photo after our hard work done at the centre!