Background for teachers:

Life cycle of products

Products and devices that we use every day contain numerous materials and components. Therefore, their life cycle involves numerous steps, beginning with the mining of raw materials, processing, and using those materials to make components and products. The manufactured products are then packaged and transported to retail before finally being used and, after some time, disposed of (they become waste).

What is a waste, what do we do with it, and how much waste do we make?

Waste is anything that the owner decides to dispose of. The waste from our garbage cans usually goes to recycling stations, landfills, or incinerators (where the waste is burned, sometimes to recover energy). If waste is not managed properly, it can end up harming the environment and pollute our air, water and ground. Use the infographic in the PowerPoint presentation to show students how many raw materials we use and that this is happening too quickly.

Is recycling a solution?

In recent decades, great efforts have been made to reduce material losses by recycling waste materials. We now live in a recycling society. But unfortunately, recycling alone is not a solution for the future. Right now, we don't have the knowledge to recycle all raw materials, or at least not in an efficient way. Even the best recycling process cannot prevent the loss of materials and their value so, a certain amount of new raw materials must be continuously added to the technological cycles. Also, many products are designed in such a way that it is very difficult to extract the specific raw materials from them. So, for the future, we need to think more broadly and with a “circular” economy vision. Circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended. In practice, it implies reducing waste to a minimum. This is a departure from the traditional linear economic model, which is based on a take-make-consume-throw away pattern. This model relies on large quantities of cheap, easily accessible materials and energy. Conversely, in a circular economy, products, components and materials are maintained at their maximum value and functionality.

Many strategies can be used to achieve this goal. First, devices should be redesigned in order to reduce the use of raw materials, especially the critical ones, turning them as much as possible to bio-based renewable materials. Products are designed for long(er) use and reuse. They are well maintained and repaired, have high reuse value, can be expanded or upgraded, and can be easily disassembled and transformed into new products. They are made of recycled or bio-based materials, are recyclable or biodegradable at the end of their life, and material losses through landfill and incineration have to be reduced. This extends the life of products and closes the material loop, minimizing the need for new materials and energy. At the same time, the environmental impact of resource extraction, emissions and waste is reduced. However, this is a fundamental change that requires great effort and must be implemented in all steps of the product life cycle to make it work.

Why do we need to switch to a circular economy?

The world's population is growing and with it the demand for raw materials. However, the supply of raw materials is limited. Finite supplies also mean some EU countries are dependent on other countries for their raw materials. In addition, extracting and using raw materials has a major impact on the environment. It also increases energy consumption and CO2 emissions. However, a smarter use of raw materials can lower CO2 emissions. Measures such as waste prevention, eco-design and reuse could save EU companies money while also reducing total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, the production of materials we use everyday account for 45% of the CO2 emissions. Moving towards a more circular economy could deliver benefits such as reducing pressure on the environment, improving the security of the supply of raw materials, increasing competitiveness, stimulating innovation, boosting economic growth (an additional 0.5% of gross domestic product), creating jobs (700,000 jobs in the EU alone by 2030). Consumers will also be provided with more durable and innovative products that will increase the quality of life and save them money in the long term. But what can we do today to help for future like that?

Waste management and 3 Rs

Waste management is a sequence of activities from the generation of waste to its introduction into the environment in the form of a new product or a safe (no environmental hazard) deposit. That is, when we use the term waste management, we mean the totality of all processes and activities to which waste is subjected, starting from its generation, through exemplary collection, separation, transport, landfill, disposal or other variants of a similar scenario! Including reuse, recycling, etc.

Hierarchy of waste management: The waste hierarchy is a method of listing waste management options in an order based on what is best for the environment. Students can contribute to waste management using the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle).

FIRST R - REDUCE OR PREVENTION

This is the most important step in the hierarchy of waste management! It is an action aimed at eliminating the possibility of waste at an early stage. We can consume less, use renewable materials, question the need for certain products or share their use (e.g. avoiding single-use plastic packaging, streaming music instead of buying CDs, going to the swimming pool instead of the pool in the garden, not to change the goods to follow the latest fashion trends).

SECOND R - REUSE

This is any process by which products or components are reused. Reuse is also the use of the product by giving it a different function, but still its new use will not change its composition or form. We can buy secondhand products, donate used products, reuse parts of broken products. Devices that are no longer adequate for their functionality must be upgraded or refurbished to recover their use or to be adapted to other uses, before throwing away a device it is necessary to evaluate the ecological convenience of repairing it.

THIRD R - RECYCLING

It is the selective collection of end-of-life products for the recovery of valuable materials (e.g., scrap metal recycling, plastics recycling, paper recycling and glass recycling). Recycling the materials into new products reduces the need for new raw materials. Metals have the highest ratio of recycling, and an infinite lifecycle, plastic and paper undergo a limited amount of recycling

ENERGY RECOVERY

This is a process in which waste is subjected to an appropriate thermal treatment that results in the recovery of some of the energy spent to produce the goods that will be incinerated. The best way is to produce electricity with high temperature heat (steam turbines) and send the low temperature fluids to heat buildings. Energy recovery includes not only the incineration of waste, but also the production of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels from waste!

DISPOSAL

This is the subjection of waste to processes that transform it into a state that does not endanger human life, health or the environment. Directive 2018/850 / EU requires that, by 2035, the quantity of municipal waste placed in landfills has to be reduced to 10%, or less, of the total produced.

Preparation for the exercise:

Download the PowerPoint presentation and prepare computers with Minecraft game.

Step-by-step instructions

Step 2:

60 min – Students play the game Minecraft in groups in the creative world (game mode creative). Give them clear but not to detailed instructions to enable their imagination. They must build 3 different R letters. One must stand for reduce, the second for reuse and the third for recycle. If they want and there is time, they can also build other structures or buildings that can help represent the concepts of reduce, reuse, and recycle. There is a lot of different materials in Minecraft so Rs can be represent through different materials (for example wood, glass…) or also through different ways of building them (build in the ground) or different form (for example size). We recommend that the teacher monitor what the children are building and help with more detailed instructions if needed.

Examples of what students can build: Reduce - they use blocks of wood or plants, they build an R in the ground and use no material, they make that R smaller... Reuse - they use material that can be reused such as glass, they build an R out of wool along with a sheep barn... Recycle - they build an R out of material that can be recycled or has already been recycled and build a recycling station. These are just a few examples but there are many more possibilities, and they just need to use their imagination and creativity.

Step 3:

30 min – The children take a screenshot of what they have built and present it to the whole class.

Exercise assessment and evaluation

Students prepare a short report/presentation about how much waste they create at home every day and what they could change to produce less. For example:

• to drink the tap water instead of the bottled one;

• to buy rechargeable A-size accumulator that replaces the corresponding piles;

• to buy liquid detergents in soft-packs instead of that in plastic bottles;

• to use solid soap instead of liquid one.

With the help of the parents, they should weight every bag of garbage that leaves their houses for almost a week. If an adequate balance is not available, they can account the number of bags and the volume of the separate garbage buckets filling the table below.

In alternative, they can focus on some waste (glass or plastic bottles, polystyrene boxes, piles etc.) and count them.

Students prepare a short report/presentation about how many electronic devices (anything that runs on electricity or batteries that can be recharged) they find at home and if any of them are no longer in use or no longer work. Can they be donated, repaired or thrown in the right e-container? They can use table below for collecting notes.

Optional activity

For those item that they classify as ‘’garbage’’ they have to use the web page https://weee4future.eitrawmaterials.eu/ to find out the savings in Raw Materials if they recycle it, and connect the activity with greenhouse emissions and energy savings.