Chapter 16 — Garbage In Garbage Out

What is waste? Waste is any material or object that people throw away because it is no longer useful to them. It is produced every day at home, school, markets, hospitals and industries.

Sources of waste: household (kitchen peels, leftover food, wrappers), schools (paper, snack packets), markets (vegetable waste, packaging), hospitals (bandages, syringes), industries (chemical residues, packaging).

Types of waste:

• Biodegradable (organic) – can be broken down by microbes (e.g., fruit peels, vegetable scraps, paper towel).
• Non-biodegradable (inorganic) – do not decay easily (e.g., plastics, glass, metals).
• Recyclable – materials that can be reprocessed into new products (e.g., paper, glass, some plastics, metals).
• Hazardous – dangerous to health or environment (e.g., batteries, medicines, certain chemicals, clinical waste).

Why proper handling matters: If waste is not managed well it causes pollution of air, water and soil, spreads diseases, harms plants and animals, and wastes resources that could be reused or recycled.

Basic waste management ideas for students: follow the 3Rs — Reduce (buy less, avoid single-use items), Reuse (use bottles and bags again), Recycle (send paper, plastic, metal, glass for recycling). Segregate waste at the source into at least two bins: wet/biodegradable and dry/non-biodegradable; keep hazardous waste separate. Compost kitchen and garden waste to make useful manure for plants.

Simple classroom/school actions: place labeled bins, run a compost corner, reuse paper for rough work, collect old batteries for safe disposal, and create awareness posters.

Waste means any unwanted or useless material produced by human activity. Classifying waste helps us decide how to handle, recycle or dispose of it safely. There are several common ways to classify waste used in everyday life and in municipal management.

1. By biodegradability

• Biodegradable (Organic/Wet) waste: Materials that can be broken down by microbes into simpler substances. Examples: fruit and vegetable peels, food scraps, garden leaves, paper (small quantities). These can be composted to make nutrient-rich soil.
• Non-biodegradable (Inorganic/Dry) waste: Materials that do not break down easily in nature. Examples: most plastics, glass, metals, synthetic fibres. They accumulate in the environment and often require recycling or safe disposal.

2. By recyclability/use

• Recyclable waste: Items that can be processed and turned into new products — paper, cardboard, many metals, some plastics, glass.
• Non-recyclable waste: Items that cannot be easily recycled and usually go to landfills or incineration — contaminated food wrappers, certain mixed-material items.

3. By hazard potential

• Hazardous waste: Waste that can harm human health or the environment. Examples: chemical containers, pesticides, paints, batteries, medical waste (used syringes, bandages).
• E-waste: Electronic and electrical equipment discarded after use — mobile phones, chargers, computers, monitors. These often contain precious metals (recyclable) and toxic substances (need special handling).

4. Common municipal categories (practical for households)

• Organic/wet: Kitchen waste, fruit/vegetable peels, tea leaves, garden waste — suitable for composting.
• Dry/recyclable: Paper, cardboard, certain plastics, glass bottles, metal cans — to be collected for recycling.
• Domestic hazardous/others: Broken glass, ceramics, diapers, sanitary waste — usually separate and sent to safe disposal.

Why classification matters: Segregating wet and dry waste at source reduces landfill volume, improves recycling rates, reduces pollution and supports composting to return nutrients to soil.

Handling methods (short): segregate into separate bins, compost biodegradable waste at home or community composting units, hand over recyclables to recycling collectors, and send hazardous/e-waste to special collection points or authorised recyclers.

Decomposition-time examples (approximate): paper: a few weeks; banana peel: 2–5 weeks; cotton cloth: months; aluminium can: decades to centuries (~200–500 years); plastic bag: decades to centuries (often cited ~100–1000 years); glass: thousands of years (practically non-biodegradable).

What are sources of waste? Sources of waste are places, activities or processes that produce unwanted or unusable materials. Waste can be solid, liquid or gaseous and comes from many everyday activities. Understanding where waste comes from helps us reduce, reuse and manage it better.

Main sources of waste

• Households: Kitchen scraps (vegetable peels, fruit cores), used paper, broken toys, plastic wrappers, glass bottles, old clothes. Household waste contains a large portion of biodegradable (organic) waste and some non-biodegradable items.
• Schools and offices: Paper waste, stationery, discarded notebooks, ink cartridges, and plastic bottles.
• Markets and shops: Spoilt food, vegetable and fruit peels, cardboard boxes, packaging material and broken items.
• Industries: Manufacturing scraps, chemical wastes, metallic off-cuts, packaging wastes and industrial effluents (liquid waste).
• Hospitals and laboratories: Contaminated bandages, syringes, medicines, chemical wastes and biological waste needing special treatment.
• Agriculture: Crop residues, animal dung (which can be used as manure), pesticide containers and leftover feed.
• Construction and demolition: Bricks, concrete, wood, metal, glass and other building debris.
• Public places and events: Street litter, food stall waste, disposable plates and cups from gatherings.

Types of waste by origin — each source produces a mix of biodegradable (can decompose, e.g. food waste), non-biodegradable (do not easily decompose, e.g. plastics, metals), hazardous (dangerous to health/environment, e.g. hospital waste, chemical sludges) and recyclable wastes (paper, glass, certain plastics, metals).

Why it matters — Identifying sources helps decide how to handle waste: composting for kitchen/organic waste, recycling for paper/glass/metal, safe disposal and treatment for hazardous waste, and reduction strategies (e.g., less packaging) at the source.

Short actions for each source — Households: segregate waste, compost organic matter. Schools: reduce paper use, recycle. Markets: collect organic waste for composting. Industries: treat effluents and recycle process scraps. Hospitals: follow biomedical-waste rules. Construction sites: reuse and recycle debris where possible.

Improper waste disposal means throwing away or disposing of solid and liquid waste in ways that are unsafe or uncontrolled — for example, open dumping, burning waste in the open, throwing garbage into drains, rivers and seas, or mixing hazardous waste with normal household waste. Such practices cause many environmental, health, social and economic problems.

Main problems:

• Water pollution: Rain washes toxic substances (leachate) from dumped waste into groundwater, rivers and lakes. This contaminates drinking water and harms aquatic life.
• Soil degradation: Hazardous chemicals and non-biodegradable materials (like plastics, heavy metals) change soil quality, reduce fertility and can enter the food chain through crops.
• Air pollution: Open burning of waste releases smoke, soot (particulate matter), carbon monoxide and toxic gases, causing breathing problems and contributing to climate change (CO2, methane).
• Health hazards: Stagnant water and mixed waste provide breeding sites for mosquitoes, flies and rodents, increasing diseases such as malaria, dengue, diarrhoea and other infections. Burning waste increases respiratory illnesses and eye irritation.
• Harm to wildlife and ecosystems: Animals eat or get entangled in plastic and other wastes; marine animals ingest microplastics, causing injury and death and disrupting food chains.
• Flooding and drainage problems: Waste clogging drains and storm channels prevents normal water flow during rains and causes urban flooding.
• Greenhouse gas emissions: Organic waste in landfills decomposes without oxygen and produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates global warming.
• Economic and social impacts: Tourism and fishing suffer near polluted beaches and water bodies; clean-up costs and health-care costs increase; land near dumps loses value.

How these happen (short mechanisms):

• Leachate formation: Rainwater percolates through waste, dissolving harmful chemicals that seep into soil and groundwater.
• Vector breeding: Organic and stagnant wastes create moist habitats for insects and rodents.
• Open burning: Incomplete combustion of mixed waste releases toxic gases and particulate matter.
• Plastic persistence: Plastics take decades to centuries to break down, fragmenting into microplastics that spread widely.

Understanding these problems helps us to see why proper segregation, recycling, composting and safe disposal methods are important for protecting the environment and public health.

Waste reduction means producing less trash and managing what we produce in ways that harm the environment as little as possible. The most famous approach is the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Beyond the 3Rs there are other useful strategies such as composting, segregation at source, repair and refill, and making better choices when buying. These methods help conserve resources, save money, reduce pollution and keep neighborhoods and schools clean.

The 3Rs

• Reduce – Cut down the amount of waste you create. Example actions: buy items with less packaging, take only the food you can eat, avoid single-use products.
• Reuse – Use items again in the same or a different way instead of throwing them away. Example actions: use cloth bags, keep jars for storage, repair toys or clothes.
• Recycle – Send materials to be processed so they become new products. Example actions: separate paper, plastic, glass and metal and put them in the correct recycling bin.

Other important strategies

• Segregation at source – Put wet (biodegradable) and dry (non-biodegradable) waste into separate bins. This makes recycling and composting easier and cleaner.
• Composting – Convert kitchen and garden organic waste (peels, leaves) into compost (natural fertiliser) using a pit, bin or pile. This reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill and helps plants grow.
• Refuse and Rethink – Say no to unnecessary freebies/packaging and think about whether you need an item before buying it.
• Repair, Refurbish, Refill – Fix broken items, give used items a new life, use refillable containers for soap, ink, etc.
• Safe disposal and E-waste management – Hazardous items (batteries, bulbs, electronics) must be handed over to collection centers or special drives so they don’t pollute the soil or water.
• Community actions and awareness – School clean-up drives, swap events, and awareness campaigns help build habits and reduce waste at a larger scale.

How children and families can practise these strategies

• Use tiffin boxes and reusable water bottles instead of disposable plates and bottles.
• Start a small compost bin at home for vegetable peels and dry leaves.
• Keep three bins at home or in the classroom: wet, dry (recyclable), and reject (hazardous/non-recyclable).
• Organise book/toy exchange days instead of buying new ones all the time.

Benefits: less waste sent to landfills, fewer resources used, lower air/water pollution, better soil (from compost), and cost savings for families and schools.

What is segregation of waste?
Segregation of waste means separating different types of garbage at the place where it is generated (home, school, market) into groups so each group can be handled, treated or disposed of properly.

Why is it important?
Segregation helps in: reducing pollution and diseases, making compost from kitchen (wet) waste, recycling dry waste (paper, plastic, glass, metal), safely disposing of hazardous waste (batteries, medicines), and reducing the amount sent to landfills.

Common categories

• Biodegradable (wet) waste — kitchen scraps, fruit/vegetable peels, tea leaves (can be composted).
• Non-biodegradable (dry) waste — paper, plastic, glass, metal (can be recycled or reused).
• Hazardous/domestic hazardous waste — batteries, medicines, broken electrical items, paints (need special disposal).

How to segregate — simple steps

1. Keep separate bins at the source (house/school): one for wet, one for dry, and a small one for hazardous items.
2. Use colour-coded bins (common practice): green for wet, blue for dry/recyclable, red for hazardous (local schemes may vary).
3. Empty kitchen waste into a compost pit or compost bin regularly.
4. Collect dry recyclable items separately and give them to kabadiwala/recycler or a school collection drive.
5. Store hazardous waste safely and hand it over to a municipal collection point or special disposal event.

What happens after segregation?
Wet waste goes for composting or biogas; dry recyclable waste is sent to recycling units; hazardous waste is treated or disposed of safely. Proper segregation increases recycling rates and reduces the volume of waste going to landfills.

Benefits for the community
Cleaner surroundings, less spread of disease, conservation of resources through recycling, reduced landfill space and lower pollution.

What is composting? Composting is a natural process in which microorganisms (bacteria, fungi) break down organic waste (kitchen scraps, garden waste, leaves) into a dark, crumbly, humus-like material called compost. It is an aerobic process (requires oxygen) when done properly and returns nutrients to the soil.

What is vermicomposting? Vermicomposting is a type of composting that uses earthworms (commonly Eisenia fetida, the red wiggler) together with microbes to convert organic waste into nutrient-rich worm castings (vermicompost). Worms speed up decomposition and improve the quality of the compost.

Key components:

• Greens: Nitrogen-rich materials — fresh vegetable peels, fruit scraps, tea leaves, fresh grass clippings.
• Browns: Carbon-rich materials — dry leaves, straw, paper, cardboard, small twigs.

Important conditions for good composting

• Carbon to Nitrogen (C:N) ratio: Ideal around 25–30:1 (carbon:nitrogen). Too much carbon slows decomposition; too much nitrogen causes odors.
• Moisture: Keep materials moist but not waterlogged (about 40–60% moisture). A handy test: material should feel like a wrung-out sponge.
• Aeration: Turn the pile or provide holes for airflow so aerobic microbes can work. Lack of oxygen causes bad smells (anaerobic).
• Particle size: Smaller pieces decompose faster because microbes have more surface area.
• Temperature: In hot composting, temperature rises to 40–65°C (thermophilic phase) killing some weed seeds and pathogens; vermicomposting prefers milder temperatures ~15–30°C because worms are sensitive to heat.

Steps for home composting (cold or hot pile):

1. Choose a bin or area and start with a layer of coarse material for drainage.
2. Alternate layers of greens and browns (aim for C:N ≈ 30:1).
3. Keep pile moist and turn every 1–2 weeks (hot method) to supply oxygen.
4. When material is dark, crumbly and earthy-smelling, compost is ready (weeks to months).

Steps for vermicomposting:

1. Use a shallow bin with drainage and bedding (moistened shredded paper, coconut fiber, or leaves).
2. Add worms and small amounts of kitchen vegetable waste. Avoid citrus, oily foods, meat, dairy, and spicy foods.
3. Keep bedding moist, not soggy, and place bin in a cool, shaded place.
4. Harvest vermicompost after 2–3 months by moving finished compost to one side and adding fresh food to the other—worms will migrate and the finished compost can be collected.

Benefits: Reduces household waste, lowers methane emissions from landfills, produces nutrient-rich soil conditioner, improves soil structure and water retention, supports plant growth.

Safety and things to avoid: Do not add meat, fish, bones, dairy, diseased plants, or pet feces. Avoid chemical pesticides and heavy oils. If the pile smells rotten, it is too wet or lacks air—turn and add browns.

Vermicompost vs regular compost: Vermicompost contains more microbial activity, often higher plant-available nutrients and better structure for seedlings. Vermicomposting works best on a smaller scale (household or school) and in moderate temperatures.

Introduction
Waste management means handling garbage in ways that protect health and the environment. Three important approaches are recycling, recovery, and disposal. These reduce the amount of waste sent to dumps and recover useful material or energy.

1. Recycling
Recycling is the process of turning used materials into new products. It needs segregation at source (separating wet/biodegradable and dry/non-biodegradable waste), collection, cleaning, and reprocessing.

• Examples of recyclable items: paper, cardboard, glass bottles, many plastics, metals.
• Steps: collection → segregation → cleaning → shredding/crushing → reprocessing into raw material → manufacturing of new products.
• Benefits: saves natural resources, reduces pollution and energy use, decreases landfill waste.

2. Recovery
Recovery means getting something useful from waste apart from direct recycling. Two main types are material recovery and energy recovery.

• Material recovery: extracting metals from e‑waste or sorting and reusing components.
• Energy recovery: converting waste into energy e.g. biogas from organic waste (biomethanation) or waste-to-energy plants (incineration with energy capture).
• Composting is a biological recovery method where organic kitchen/garden waste is converted into nutrient-rich compost for soil.

3. Disposal
Disposal is the final placement of waste when it cannot be recycled or recovered. Safe disposal methods minimize harm to people and the environment.

• Sanitary landfill: properly engineered sites where waste is compacted and covered daily; leachate and gas are managed.
• Open dumping: uncontrolled dumping; harmful and causes pollution (to avoid).
• Incineration (without energy recovery) burns waste to reduce volume — can cause air pollution if not controlled.

How they fit together
Good waste management follows a hierarchy: reduce (use less) → reuse (use again) → recycle → recover (energy/material) → safe disposal. Segregation at source is crucial because mixed waste makes recycling and recovery difficult.

Advantages and disadvantages (short)

• Recycling: + conserves resources; − needs clean separation and infrastructure.
• Recovery (composting/biogas): + returns nutrients or energy; − requires space/technology and proper operation.
• Disposal (sanitary landfill): + contains waste safely if well-built; − uses land and needs long-term monitoring.

Practical tips for students

• Segregate waste at home into wet (kitchen), dry (paper, plastic, metal), and hazardous (batteries, bulbs) bins.
• Make a small compost pit for kitchen vegetable peelings or join a community composting unit.
• Give old paper, bottles, and metal to recycling centres; return used batteries and e‑waste to collection points.

What is sewage? Sewage is the dirty water that comes out of our homes, schools and shops — water used for bathing, washing clothes and utensils, flushing toilets, and water that carries human wastes and other refuse. It contains organic matter (food particles, faeces, urine), detergents, chemicals, and sometimes disease-causing germs.

Why is sewage a problem? If sewage is not collected and treated, it pollutes rivers, lakes and groundwater. This causes bad smells, spreads diseases (like diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid), and kills fish and plants. Open drains can also become breeding places for mosquitoes and flies.

What is sanitation? Sanitation means safe ways to dispose of human wastes and keep surroundings clean. It includes toilets, safe collection of sewage, sewage pipes or septic tanks, proper cleaning of drains, and treatment of sewage before releasing it into the environment. Good sanitation protects health and the environment.

How is sewage collected and disposed? - In cities, houses are connected by pipes to a sewer system that carries sewage to a sewage treatment plant. - In smaller towns or rural homes, sewage may go to a septic tank — an underground tank that holds sewage so solids settle and liquids flow out to a soak pit. - In places without toilets, open defecation or unsafe pits cause serious health risks.

How is sewage treated? (Simple steps) 1. Screening: remove large objects (rags, plastic). 2. Sedimentation (primary): heavy solids settle to form sludge. 3. Biological treatment (secondary): helpful bacteria break down organic waste in the water (e.g., aeration tanks). 4. Secondary sedimentation: remaining solids settle. 5. Disinfection (tertiary): kill germs (chlorination or sunlight). 6. Safe release or reuse: treated water can be released to a river or used for irrigation.

Role of everyone Simple actions help sanitation: use/maintain toilets, avoid throwing waste into drains, segregate and dispose of solid waste properly, cover drains, and wash hands with soap. Regular cleaning and maintenance of septic tanks and community sewers is important to prevent blockages and contamination.

Garbage management begins with people. Everyone — individuals, families and the whole community — has responsibilities to reduce the amount of waste created, handle it correctly and keep the environment clean. If each person follows simple habits, the total waste and its harm to the environment fall a lot.

Individuals

• Reduce, reuse and recycle: buy less, use items many times, and give recyclable things to collection points.
• Segregate waste at source: keep wet (food) waste separate from dry (paper, plastic, metal) waste and hazardous waste (batteries, bulbs).
• Compost food and garden waste at home (in a small pit or compost bin) so biodegradable waste becomes useful soil.
• Dispose of e-waste and hazardous waste at proper collection centres, not in dustbins.

Families

• Plan shopping and cooking to avoid food waste; store food properly.
• Keep separate containers for wet and dry waste and teach all members about segregation.
• Make a small compost pit or bin for wet waste; use the compost in the home garden.
• Organize and encourage reuse (old clothes as rags, jars for storage) and repair items instead of throwing them away.

Community

• Set up door-to-door collection and local segregation centres so waste is collected properly.
• Create community composting sites for organic waste from several houses.
• Run awareness campaigns, clean-up drives and waste-monitoring in schools and neighbourhoods.
• Work with municipal bodies to ensure recycling, safe disposal and punishments for littering.

Benefits: Less litter, fewer diseases, more recycling and compost for plants, reduced pollution and lower cost of municipal waste handling.

Activities, experiments and observations in the chapter 'Garbage In, Garbage Out' teach how different kinds of waste behave, how to separate and manage them, and how biological processes (decomposition and composting) convert waste into useful materials. These hands‑on tasks involve collecting waste, designing simple experiments, recording changes over time, and drawing conclusions about biodegradability, recycling and safe disposal.

Common experimental goals:

• Identify biodegradable versus non‑biodegradable waste.
• Observe rates of decomposition for different materials.
• Learn how composting (including vermicomposting) works and what conditions it needs.
• Measure the proportions of different waste types produced at home or school.

Typical activities and how to conduct them (with observations to expect):

1. Decomposition in Jars (Controlled observation)
   1. Place equal amounts (by mass or volume) of different wastes in separate transparent jars: e.g., vegetable peels, paper, cloth, plastic, and soil as a control.
   2. Cover jars loosely (to allow air) and keep them in the same place. Record initial mass, smell, colour and appearance.
   3. Observe daily/weekly for 2–6 weeks. Note changes in smell, texture, colour and mass.

   Expected observations: vegetable waste softens, reduces in mass and smells (decomposes fast); paper and cloth break down slowly; plastic shows little or no change.

2. Household Segregation and Weighing
   1. For 7 days, collect and separate household waste into biodegradable, recyclable (paper, metal, glass), and non‑biodegradable/plastic bins. Weigh each category daily.
   2. Tabulate totals and draw simple graphs showing percentage contribution of each category.

   Expected observations: biodegradable waste often forms a large percentage in kitchen households; plastic and mixed recyclables form a sizeable portion too.

3. Small Compost Pit or Vermicompost Bin
   1. Create a pit or bin with alternate layers of green (kitchen waste) and brown (dry leaves, paper) materials; add soil and water to maintain moisture; add red earthworms for vermicomposting.
   2. Monitor temperature (using a thermometer), moisture (touch test), and smell over weeks to months. Turn the pile occasionally (unless vermicomposting).

   Expected observations: internal temperature rises initially (microbial activity), materials get reduced and dark, crumbly humus is produced after several weeks/months.

4. Paper Recycling Demonstration
   1. Tear used paper, soak in water, blend into a pulp, press to remove water and dry to form recycled sheets.

   Observation: new paper can be made from old paper, reducing waste and saving trees.

5. Safe Burning Demonstration (only with adult supervision and outdoors)
   1. Burn a small piece of paper and a small piece of plastic separately in a controlled, ventilated area (ideally use a lab setup or avoid burning plastics if unsafe).

   Observation: paper burns cleanly and leaves ash; plastic produces dense, black smoke and residue and releases toxic fumes — demonstrating why burning plastics is harmful.

Recording observations: keep simple tables and dates. Photograph or sketch samples at intervals. Note mass change, colour, smell, texture, temperature (for compost) and presence of insects or worms.

Conclusions students should reach:

• Biodegradable wastes decompose faster and can be turned into compost; non‑biodegradable wastes (plastics, glass) persist and need different disposal methods or recycling.
• Segregation at source reduces landfill load and makes recycling/composting possible.
• Proper composting requires right balance of moisture, air, carbon:nitrogen ratio and time.
• Burning certain wastes (especially plastics) is harmful and should be avoided.

Safety notes: Always use gloves, wash hands, work with adult supervision for burning or cutting, and avoid exposing pupils to toxic fumes.

Introduction: This glossary lists and explains important words from the Class 6 Science chapter "Garbage In, Garbage Out." These terms help you understand how different kinds of waste behave, how they are managed, and why segregation and recycling matter.

• Waste / Garbage: Anything thrown away because it is not useful. Examples: leftover food, broken toys, torn paper.
• Biodegradable Waste: Waste that can be broken down naturally by microbes into simpler substances. Examples: fruit peels, vegetable waste, paper, garden leaves.
• Non-biodegradable Waste: Waste that does not decompose easily or takes very long to break down. Examples: plastic, glass, metal.
• Segregation: The practice of separating waste at the source into categories such as dry (recyclable), wet (biodegradable), and hazardous. It makes recycling and disposal easier and safer.
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (3Rs): A hierarchy for managing waste: first try to reduce what you buy, then reuse items when possible, and finally recycle materials into new products.
• Composting: Turning biodegradable kitchen and garden waste into nutrient-rich soil (compost) with the help of microbes and sometimes earthworms (vermicomposting).
• Vermicompost / Vermiculture: Composting using earthworms that eat organic waste and produce rich castings used as fertilizer.
• Recycling: The process of collecting materials (like paper, plastic, metal) and processing them so they can be used again to make new products.
• Reuse: Using an item again in its original form—for example, refilling a glass bottle or turning an old shirt into a cleaning rag.
• Landfill: A place where non-recyclable solid waste is dumped and buried. Modern landfills are designed to reduce pollution, but they still use land and can cause pollution if not managed well.
• Incineration: Burning waste at high temperatures. It reduces waste volume but can release harmful gases unless controlled with filters.
• Hazardous Waste: Waste that is dangerous to health or the environment, such as batteries, chemicals, medical waste, and certain electronic waste (e-waste).
• Decomposers / Degraders: Microorganisms (bacteria, fungi) and animals (earthworms) that break down dead organic matter into simpler substances.
• Sanitation: Measures and systems (like clean water supply, toilets, proper waste disposal) that protect public health by preventing contact with harmful waste.

Why these terms matter: Knowing these definitions helps students practise waste segregation at home and school, understand how composting and recycling work, and learn how personal choices reduce pollution.

Quick tips for students: Keep two or three bins at home: wet (kitchen) waste for composting, dry recyclables (paper, plastic, metal), and a small bin for hazardous items (batteries) to be handed over at collection centres. Follow the 3Rs every day.