We went to an environmental centre last Tuesday to learn all about recycling! It is something we need to learn how to do better to help contribute to the achievement of the Global Goal of Responsible Consumption and Production. We also learned how to talk about recycling in Mandarin, so that we could share our learnings to both the English and Mandarin speaking communities of Brisbane 🙂

(for more insight into the Global Goals see our blog posts Heroes for Change, sending light , a day without electricity, and using milk to make plastic)

So from their research, the kids learned that Australia is not recycling as well as we could, and it seems mostly to do with confusion of what can and cannot be recycled, especially when each City Council has its own rules!  So we thought we would start with finding out what we can and cannot recycle in the Brisbane City Council area…we learned things we didn’t know!  So the kids made a video to share their findings about ‘Recycling’ in Brisbane.  They made this one in both English and Chinese, so that we could share these findings with both the English and Chinese speaking communities in Brissie!

Words to the song in our video are same as Groovi Pauli’s version below…but we had to change the words in our version to reflect our Council’s classifications! 🙂  Our classifications are Plastic 塑料  (sù liào)  Glass 玻璃 (bō li) Paper 纸 (zhǐ) Cardboard 纸板 (zhǐ bǎn) and Metal 金属 (jīn shǔ).  There are tables in the video that show examples of what can and cannot be recycled in each classification, in both English and Mandarin.  These tables are copied in this post at the bottom, but unfortunately I cannot colour code them on this page like they are in the video!

Some piks from the Recycle talk at Osprey House Environmental Centre:

The song that the kids sing in the video is taken from Groovi Pauli’s ‘Recycle song’ on his ‘Go Green’ album (top album to buy and listen to!), they had to change the lyrics a little to suit our Council’s classification and rules!  But here is Groovi Pauli’s version to listen to:

Lyrics to Groovi Pauli’s Recycle song are:

我说嘿！

垃圾分类

要资源回收

 看看你的垃圾

你有没有回收？

OH哦，没有没有

分类一下

回收容易了

瓶子    玻璃

纸        电池

都可以回收

不要乱丢

wǒ shuō hēi ！
lā jī fēn lèi
yāo zī yuán huí shōu
kàn kan nǐ de lā jī
nǐ yǒu méi yǒu huí shōu ？
OH ò ， méi yǒu méi yǒu
fēn lèi yī xià
huí shōu róng yì le
píngzi    bōli
zhǐ     diànchí
dōu kě yǐ huí shōu
bù yào luàn diū

I said ‘Hey’
separate your rubbish
you must recycle natural resources
look at your rubbish
have you recycled it?
Oho, no, no
sort it
recycling is easy
bottles, Glass,
paper, batteries  (NB lyrics/materials in our kids’ version changed to reflect Brisbane City Council’s classifications)
all can be recycled
don’t throw it away!

The following tables were created to give examples of what can and cannot be recycled in each classification of the Brisbane City Council..in both English and Mandarin 🙂

Metal materials that can be recycled:

Metal	金属	jīn shǔ
Tin cans	罐头	guàn tou
Soft drink cans	软饮料罐	ruǎn yǐn liào guàn
Foil trays	银箔托盘	yín bó tuō pán
Aluminium foil	铝箔	lǚ bó
aerosols	喷雾罐	pēn wù guàn
Paint tins	颜料罐	yán liào guàn

Metal Materials that cannot be recycled:

Metal	金属	jīn shǔ
Batteries	电池	diàn chí
Gas bottles	煤气罐	méi qì guàn
Metal wire	金属线	jīn shǔ xiàn
Scrap metal	废钢铁	fèi gāng tiě
Stainless steel cutlery	金属制的餐具	jīn shǔ zhì de cān jù
White goods	白色家电	bái sè jiā diàn

Glass Meterials that can be recycled:

Glass	玻璃	bō li
food bottles and jars	食物玻璃瓶和玻璃罐	shí wù bō li píng hé bō li guàn
Drink bottles	饮料玻璃瓶子	yǐn liào bō li píng zi
Perfume bottles	香水瓶	xiāng shuǐ píng

Glass Materials that cannot be recycled:

Glass	玻璃	bō li
Drinking glasses	玻璃杯	bō li bēi
Heat resistant glass	耐热玻璃	nài rè bō li _
Mirror glass	镜玻璃	jìng bō li
Window glass	窗玻璃	chuāng bō lí
Light bulb	灯泡	dēng pào

Plastic Materials that can be recycled:

plastic	塑料	sù liào
Soft drink bottles	软饮料瓶子	ruǎn yǐn liào píng zi
Takeaway containers	塑料容器	sù liào róng qì
Butter/yoghurt tubs	黄油/酸奶包装容器	huáng yóu / suān nǎi bāo zhuāng róng qì
Disposable plates /cutlery	塑料餐具	sù liào cān jù
Shampoo/detergent bottles	洗发水/洗涤剂瓶	xǐ fà shuǐ / xǐ dí jì píng
Biscuit / sushi trays	饼干/寿司盘	bǐng gān / shòu sī pán
Milk /juice bottles	牛奶 /果汁瓶	niú nǎi / guǒ zhī píng

Plastic Materials that cannot be recycled:

plastic	塑料	sù liào
Hard plastics (eg. toys /toothbrushes)	硬质塑料 （比如玩具/牙刷）	yìng zhì sù liào （ bǐ rú wán jù / yá shuā ）
Straws	吸管	xī guǎn
Plastic bags	塑料袋	sù liào dài
Cling wrap	保鲜膜	bǎo xiān mó
Chip packets	薯片包装	shǔ piàn bāo zhuāng
Toothpaste tubes	牙膏管子	yá gāo guǎn zǐ
Bubble wrap	气泡包装	qì pào bāo zhuāng

Paper Materials that can be recycled:

paper	纸	zhǐ
newspaper	报纸	bào zhǐ
Junk mail / advertising brochures	垃圾邮件/广告邮件	lā jī yóu jiàn / guǎng gào yóu jiàn
Office paper	办公废纸	bàn gōng fèi zhǐ _
Gift wrap	礼物包装纸	lǐ wù bāo zhuāng zhǐ _
Note books	笔记本	bǐ jì běn _
magazines	杂志	zá zhì _
Phone books	电话簿	diàn huà bù
Greetings cards	贺卡	hè kǎ
Paper bags	纸袋	zhǐ dài
envelopes	信封	xìn fēng

Paper Materials that cannot be recycled:

paper	纸	zhǐ
Padded envelopes	软包装的信封	ruǎn bāo zhuāng de xìn fēng
photos	照片	zhào piàn
Wax coated paper	蜡纸	là zhǐ
tissues	纸巾	zhǐ jīn
Toilet paper	卫生纸	wèi shēng zhǐ
Baking paper	烤纸	kǎo zhǐ

Cardboard Materials that can be recycled:

cardboard	纸板	zhǐ bǎn
boxes	纸箱	zhǐ xiāng
milk / juice cartons	牛奶箱 /果汁箱	niú nǎi xiāng / guǒ zhī xiāng
Egg cartons	鸡蛋箱	jī dàn xiāng
Toy boxes	玩具纸板包装	wán jù zhǐ bǎn bāo zhuāng
Pizza /cereal boxes	比萨饼盒 /谷物盒子	bǐ sà bǐng hé / gǔ wù hé zi
Detergent boxes	洗涤剂盒子	xǐ dí jì hé zi
Tissue boxes	纸巾盒	zhǐ jīn hé
Cardboard coffee cups	纸板咖啡杯	zhǐ bǎn kā fēi bēi

Cardboard Materials that cannot be recycled:

cardboard	纸板	zhǐ bǎn
Wax coated boxes	蜡涂层的纸板箱子	là tú céng de zhǐ bǎn xiāng zi

Happy Recycling!