4.6 Reuse, Reduce and Recycle

Conserving Materials

1) We get natural materials from animals, plants and rocks on the Earth.
     There is a limit to Earth's resources.

2) Some materials are renewable. For example, we grow trees to obtain
    wood and breed silkworms to obtain silk. However, this needs a lot of
    time, effort and money.

3) Non- renewable materials such as petroleum, coal, natural gas and
     metals cannot be obtained once they are used up. They can only be
     obtained from the earth.

4) Altough man-made materials are not obtained directly from nature,
    they are often produced from natural materials such as petroleum.

5) Natural materials and man-made materials are limited. They will be
    used up if there is no effort to conserve them.

6) As such, we should conserve materials so that they would not be used
    up easily.

7) We can help to conserve materials by reusing, reducing and recycling
the things we use every day.
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Reusing Materials

1) Reusing is an attempt to use thrown-away materials again for other
     purposes.

2) Instead of throwing things away, we can modify them so that they can
    be used again.

3) This can help to reduce the amount of waste and save a lot of precious
     materials.

4) Here are some of the things that we can reuse.
    (a) Old newspapers can be used to wrap things. Old magazines and boxes
         can be used to wrap presents.

    (b) Pieces of old cloth can be used to wash cars or to mop floors.

 





Old tyres are used to decorate gardens.






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Reducing The Use Of Materials

1) In order to conserve materials, we must reduce the use of natural materials.

2) Reducing the use of materials can help save production costs and reduce
    the amount of waste.

3) Paper comes from trees. If we use a lot of paper, we need to cut down many
     trees. Using less paper means saving trees. For example,
     (a) write or print on both sides of a paper

     (b) use handkerchiefs instead of tissue paper

4) Use baskets and food containers instead of plastic bags when shopping.

5) Avoid using disposable objects such as plastic spoons and forks,
    polystyrene plates and cups, and wooden chopsticks.

wooden chopsticks

tissue paper

plastic spoon and fork



 









polystyrene container





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Recycling Materials

1) Recycling materials is converting used and old materials into new products.

2) Materials that can be recycled are sent to collection centres for recyclable
     materials or put into recycling bins.

3) The materials are then separated and put into  different bins. These bins are
    marked with recyclable symbols.

4) Materials that can be recycled are glass, paper, aluminium and plastic.

Recycling bins
Brown - glass
Blue - paper
Orange - plastic and aluminium