The City of Newcastle offers school groups the opportunity to track the contents of local wheelie bins, following the separate paths taken by garbage and recyclables from our city.

Class Excursions

Council's Environmental Educator takes tours of the Summerhill Waste Management Facility and Thornton Materials Recovery Facility for Newcastle school and community groups. If your school is out of the Newcastle Council area, please contact your local council for a list of their waste education programs.

The tours can be tailored to classes from 2-12, offering an appropriate level of information for each age group.

 Teachers Information Pack (177kb)

School Activities

Council's Environmental Educator offers classroom talks suitable for K-12. Presentation topics include; worm farming and composting, recycling, waste management and waste and climate change issues.

Equipment and information is also available for loan to help schools conduct waste audits. A waste audit can give students a 'hands on' learning experience, as well as providing valuable data for waste management planning. The Environmental Educator can also assist with the waste minimisation component of the school's environmental plan.

Worksheets, fact sheets and suggestions for activities, for both Primary and Secondary students, are also available. 

Primary School Resources:

1.  Waste Audit worksheet (74.4kb)
2.  Compost in a bottle activity sheet (40.4kb)
3.  Seedling Experiment (30.4kb)
4.  Compost Colour-In (69.1kb)
5.  Recycling Activity Sheets (372kb)

Secondary School Resources:

1.  Waste Audit worksheet(43.3kb)

To get your school involved, contact Council's Environmental Educator on 4974 2848 or email mail@ncc.nsw.gov.au.

Recycling

Recyclables collected from kerbside collections and commercial operations are taken to the Material Recovery Facility operated by Thiess Services in the Thornton Industrial Estate.

The facility sorts paper, cardboard, liquid paperboard, glass, plastics, steel and aluminium from residential collections, as well as commercial quantities of cardboard from shopping centres. Most of the sorting process is mechanised, using magnets, a high-tech paper screen and an eddy current to separate out aluminium cans, though the different coloured glass must still be sorted by hand.

The sorted recyclables are then sold as raw materials to customers both in Australia and overseas.

Thiess Services have built a viewing platform at the facility to give the community and school groups an opportunity to see the sorting operation.

For more information contact Council's Environmental Educator on 02 4974 2848.

Hunter Waste Education Group

Council's Environmental Educators are members of the Hunter Waste Education Group . The Group consists of local and state government educators from the Hunter Region who focus on waste and sustainability education.

The Hunter's annual Waste As Art competition is part of the Group's waste education program. The competition is free to enter and open to individuals and school groups.