Celebrate 25 years of National Recycling Week

Planet Ark is challenging the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector to recognise waste as a valuable resource, and celebrate recycling during National Recycling Week by taking part in the Schools Recycle Right Challenge.

Despite the “schools” name, the challenge has a number of lesson plans and activities that cater for children aged between three and six years of age, which have been developed in collaboration with Cool Australia under the early learning tab on this page.

The Challenge offers a wide range of recycling themed activities, lesson plans and event ideas that have been developed specifically for Australian schools and ECEC settings.

Some of the activities and resources (such as the ARL memory card game, the arts and crafts guide, colouring sheets and the Ollie and the Spectral Spectacles digibook) are also suitable for younger age groups, and may be found here.

To support the learning during National Recycling Week, Planet Ark will also deliver two free online recycling sessions, the next of which will be held 20 October, providing the opportunity for children and educators to ask experts their biggest recycling questions.

Those who participate in the challenge will also go into the running to win a grand prize worth over $1,000, with a number of individual prizes available for educators.

To be in the running for the educator prize draw, educators should take a photo of a completed lesson from a featured lesson plan, activity or resource, sharing how children were involved.

Corporate partnerships

This year, Planet Ark worked with National Recycling Week major sponsor Gumtree Australia to develop a curriculum aligned lesson plan based on the recently released digital book Ollie and the Spectral Spectacles.

The book and lesson plan urge children to rethink the way we understand our resources and encourages them to reduce and reuse to help them make their community and environment more sustainable.

Planet Ark also worked with Sheridan, official sponsor of the Schools Recycle Right Challenge, on an audiobook called Dreams Can Save The World to inspire Australian children to think outside the box when it comes to sustainable action.

The story was co-created by seven Australian children and tells the story of a shared dream where they use secret powers to help them clean up a river that needs their help.

For more information, visit the National Recycling Week website, here.