School homework: report how much plastic goes to the bin at home per day

[WorkinMumsince4ever]

My DDs school asked the (year 5) children to track and report the number of plastic items going to the bin for one week.
The results will be gathered and entered online during class. I personally find it intrusive. Looks like a form of monitoring via the children, as that doesn’t look ethical.
Personally I think there are other ways to improve recycling. In any case, I’m intrigued to know if this is something common, guideline by the DoE, or something else. I’m trying to find references before deciding on my next move.
i hope this helps other mums/families as well.
Thanks.

You're being paranoid.

It's teaching research, recording and maths skills in a real world context.

It’s nothing sinister. Don’t participate if you’d rather not. It’s likely this
that takes place during British Science Week
https://thebigplasticcount.com/

You sound paranoid. I think it’s a great idea. It’s teaching a variety of skills.

I assume you don’t recycle much if you’re that worried.

It's for Science Week- many schools participate in this.

My Y5 DD also came home with the same sheet, so they either go to the same school and we are both being watched 👀
OR, it's standard issue for KS2 and part of science week
I suspect the latter

You are sounding a bit paranoid I'm afraid. Just do the kitchen bin if you don't want to list anything personal. Teaching kids data collection and analysis is great. Practical and an eye opener for them.

DD came home with it too. It’s a national thing for science week. Do it, don’t do it - whatever you want! But there’s no need to be paranoid about it.

What do you mean decide your next move?
What are you helping us with?🤔

You’re being utterly ridiculous

Oh don't be ridiculous why are you being so odd about some homework? For part of my degree in nutrition we had to collect our own urine for 3 days and bring it in daily to analyse. Everyone did it, no issues?

We also did something similar in primary schools many years ago by keeping a tally of how many times our family used the loo and showers over a week. So what 🤷🏻‍♀️

Are you normally this anxious? Or has the issue of recycling triggered something?

One of my DC would have absolutely loved that homework. They do a lot of data analysis in their job now.

Baffled as to what your "next move" might be.

Just do a simple 7 column table with a row that has 0 under each day.

Job done.

For part of my degree in nutrition we had to collect our own urine for 3 days and bring it in daily to analyse.

If you had Gillian McKeith as your lecturer, it wouldn't have been urine!! 🤮

I’m not from this country and come from a country where recycling is highly embedded in society, supported by well developed process that sure to limit non compliance.

Households pay for the rubbish bags issued by the council. They are marked for general usage, recyclable plastics, organic, food waste, paper and cardboard. The most expensive bags are the generic waste ones, followed by recyclable plastics, etc.

Items need to be cleaned before they’re put in the bags. The bags are picked up at different times according to the type of rubbish. If a non-compliant bag/item is deposited, the whole bag is not picked up. If someone gets caught depositing illegal rubbish, they get fined.

I understand the UK needs to invest more in infrastructure to have enough capacity to manage waste, to prevent the export of plastic to other countries.
https://www.bpf.co.uk/press/exporting-plastic-waste-for-recycling.aspx

I am not sure what steps the current government or the next will take to tackle this problem. From your comments and the Google search I did, it looks like the data from schools may be partially used to assess the amount of rubbish. I didn’t see that practice in my country, hence the suspicion.

I hope this comment was beneficial to those who commented, and those who read it.

In the kindest possible way, get a grip. Your Year 5’s self reported household plastic rubbish is not going to form the basis of a Big Brother style household registry, nor inform government policy. It’s just a science lesson.

😂

So your well developed country hands out multiple single use plastic bags for your rubbish?

We get them for free in my borough. Council drops them off, chuck in all your recyclables, no need for sorting, lob them out on the curb once a week and they’re collected with no limit on how many you can put out. I think they’re going for idiot proof recycling!

I wouldn’t overthink a kid’s science project though OP.

You use plastic bags for recycling rather than wheelie bins ? What you’re describing happens here, but using reusable bins
School is not sending round the bin police to check your rubbish

Not everywhere has wheelie bins. We don’t. They’re not really practical if the housing stock means a lot of people don’t have side access and/or big front gardens. But yeah it’s just a kid’s school science project, not the ‘bin police’ 🤣

You have been paranoid about how you may look says that you didn't do anything until now, while you are aware you maybe able to do better. Otherwise why would you feel intrusive, unless you feel ashamed?
Great work by school to wake parents up to do better, imo.

If you come from a culture that has recycling drummed into the psyche then you are probably also being careful about buying stuff in unnecessary packaging and recycling what you can. your child will be a leading star in their class with their recycling prowess.

My DD (Year 3) has brought this home too. As others have said, it's for science week.

Our info sheet explains that they are not wanting people to record any personal items (eg sanitary, medical etc). It looks to be sponsored by or endorsed by Greenpeace.

Exactly. Nothing intrusive about it either. When I was at school a v long time ago, we were all asked to find out the mpg of our family car if we had one. The numbers were used to teach averages - mean, median and mode.

I get it OP, if you're from a culture whose Govt may be of the oppressive kind you may be suspicious. As a member of school staff, I can promise you we are not recording this data in anyway to pass onto Govt. It really is just a way of getting kids interested in science (and maths) by making it personal to them.