Recycling

Preparation and Planning

The outlined activities and supporting stimuli provide sufficient material to cover at least one lesson. Extension activities could further support learning into two or even three lessons, depending on the time available and student ability. The suggested timings in the Lesson Plan grid are only a guide and you may choose to increase the time allocated to particular activities.
Many of the activities involve multi-media; therefore if you are able, ensure you have access to a laptop and overhead or whiteboard projector to show students the attached PowerPoint Slides and Video.
Ensure that you photocopy enough of the Student Worksheets for the whole class. All Student Worksheets can be used in pairs or independently, depending on your preference.

About the MOD Topic

Sustainable Consumption and Production policy:

The Government has set out a number of core principles to guide departments such as the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in the way it uses resources. The following is an extract taken from the document:

'To live within our resources, we need to achieve more with less. This requires us to change the way we design, produce, use and dispose of the products and services we own and consume.

'Current production practices and consumption levels are the source of many of the environmental challenges we face, requiring us to urgently develop products and services using fewer resources and to prevent waste. This will certainly mean using cleaner technologies, but it will also require new ideas to encourage us to meet our needs in different, less harmful ways. Today, we need to innovate to redesign products, rethink business models and restructure systems.'

Taken from - http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/what/priority/consumption-production/

Statement from the MOD's Sustainable Policy Team:

What is Sustainable Development?
It is widely acknowledged that the current model of development in the UK, and across much of the rest of the world, is unsustainable: we are living beyond the means of the planet to support us. Sustainable development addresses this challenge. It is essentially concerned with meeting the needs of people today, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

It is about finding a way forward which strikes a balance between economic growth, social progress and environmental stewardship.

For the MOD, this means achieving the Defence Vision in a way that considers the social and environmental impacts of decisions, alongside cost.
Why is Sustainable Development important to Defence?

At the strategic level, Sustainable Development (SD) and the Defence Vision are interdependent:
- without international peace and stability there can be no SD,
- and without SD there is a real risk that defence capability will be threatened.

At the business operational level, the MOD's size and the scope of its business mean that it has the potential to make a significant contribution to sustainable development.

SD also makes good business sense. Adopting sustainable business practices frequently results in benefits such as reduced costs, improved reputation and improved capability.

The MOD SD Vision:
The MOD's SD vision reflects the close links between SD and defence:

'We will be successful in achieving the Defence Vision because we have embedded sustainable development principles into all areas of defence business.

We will achieve this vision through our Sustainable Development Strategy and Sustainable Development Report and Action Plan.'

These cover the following priority areas for action:

Sustainable Consumption and Production:
The Government's Sustainable Development Strategy, Securing the Future, identifies sustainable procurement, improved waste management and more sustainable building design as the key routes to tackling this challenge. Given that the MOD has a built estate which covers approximately 80,000 hectares, spends some £18 billion pounds on goods and services, and an estimated £19million on waste management; it recognises that it has a major contribution to make in each of these areas.

Climate Change and Energy:
The 2008 National Security Strategy identified Climate Change as 'potentially the greatest threat to global and national security'. The MOD takes its responsibilities very seriously with regards to climate change, both through Mitigation – reducing its own emissions to minimise our contributions to climate change; and Adaptation – Adapting its policy planning, equipment and estate to the potential threats posed by climate change, as well as contributing to wider UK Government campaigns to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change.

Natural Resource Protection and Environmental Enhancement:
As the third largest landowner in the country, the MOD has a duty to protect and enhance the land, water and air associated with its estate. The MOD also has a responsibility to protect its historic estate, which strongly reflects the ethos and heritage of the services.

Further Opportunities for Learning

Students could be asked to create a scale model of their design. Thought should be given to what materials could be substituted for those specified in the design brief when constructing the model.

Ask Students to adopt the role of a Government Minister asked to write a sustainability manifesto for the UK. Students should consider the importance of waste management (including recycling), transport and use of resources such as electricity. Students should outline three policies for each which they think would help to improve the UK's sustainability.

Ask students to investigate and write a report on the effectiveness of their schools recycling policies.

Student worksheet answers

Download the teachers notes PDF to access the answers for this lesson.