Recycle Relay
10 minutes
Split the group into two or three equal teams. Place a pile of rubbish and recycling in front of them, and two bins for each team on the other side of the room – one for recycling, one for rubbish. In a relay race the teams have to run to the rubbish pile, grab an item and place it in either bin depending on whether they think it can be recycled or not. Give them three minutes, with a point for each item in the correct box. The team with the most correct items wins
Introduction
5 minutes
Say: We see waste every day, it’s an ongoing issue, yet we seem so reluctant to do anything about it. Fact: every two hours in the UK we create enough waste to fill the Royal Albert Hall. In one year we produce 31 million tonnes, which is the same as three and a half million double decker buses – enough for a queue to go around the world two and a half times.
All of this rubbish is going into landfills – large holes in the ground. That’s not a nice thought is it? Your land – where you live, grow food, get your water – is full of this rubbish. It enters the earth, and ultimately enters our systems. The average person throws away 74kg of food waste each year. This is the equivalent of 1,077 banana skins.
Film Clip
5 minutes
Play the Man clip, found here, and ask: what are your reflections on the video? Do you think it tells a story of our lives?
The Three ‘R’s
5 minutes
Say: We can cut down waste in three ways: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Reduce: Cut down on the amount of packaging we use; buy and use reusable shopping bags and coffee cups; stop buying bottled water; read magazines and newspapers on your phone.
Reuse: Before throwing something away, ask: can I use this for something else? A water bottle can be washed and used many times, or how about doing something crafty? Turn an empty jar into a pencil holder, candle holder, sweetie jar or copper bank.
Recycle: Don’t just put it straight in the bin, think: what’s this made of? Can I recycle it? We can recycle much more than we think – plastic, cardboard, paper, metal, food, even electronics and bricks. Talk through an average house and discuss what could be recycled within each room:
Bathroom: plastic bottles, toilet rolls, toothpaste boxes.
Living room: newspapers, envelopes.
Bedroom: magazines, tissue boxes, aerosols, perfume bottles.
Kitchen: cereal boxes, jam jars, drinks cans, food packaging, washing up liquid bottles.
Fact: plastic bottles can be recycled into football shirts and fleeces. Recycling one drink can produce enough energy to power a TV for four hours. It takes just six weeks for your can to be recycled and put back on the shelf.
Discussion
10 minutes
Ask: Why should we, as Christians, care about the earth? What can we each do to cut down our waste? Brainstorm some ideas. What will happen to the planet if we don’t recycle and cut down our waste?
Say: The energy used to create the amount of packaging we use is damaging the planet – global warming is causing Climate Change. In Bangladesh alone it is thought that, in the next 40 years, 18 million people will be forced to leave their homes due to rising sea levels; and 20 per cent of the country will be under water. In the Sahel region of Africa, six million people are at risk of starvation because of drought caused by Climate Change.
We can help prevent Climate Change in many ways: by consuming less and recycling more.
Bible Verses
5 minutes
Read Jeremiah 2:7 and Ezekiel 34:18 and say: God tells us that the earth is a gift and we should look after it, not defile it. If we were to continue down this consumerist lifestyle we would need three planets to sustain us, yet we only have one. Let’s not waste it.
Activity
10 minutes As an example of ‘reusing’, make things out of old jars using ribbon, string and glass paints. These could be pencil holders, candle holders, drinking glasses and so on.
Pray
5 minutes
Lord, thank you for the Earth, thank you for this gift of life. Open our eyes to the beauty of the world around us and to everything it provides. Let us not waste its resources, but take pleasure in its care. Give us the strength to care for our global neighbours, and the ability to help them any way we can. Help our governments take a stand against Climate Change, for future generations, and to reduce the impact of our actions. Amen.
For more information on recycling, visit here.
Fiona Jackson is part of the Tearfund youth team and a volunteer youth worker.
