#17 Talking about recycling | How to live a sustainable life

Garbo is the Australian slang for a rubbish collector or garbage collector. Be sure to put out the bins tonight. The garbo is picking up the rubbish tomorrow morning.

Chuck it means to throw something

Chuck out means to throw something away

Vocabulary:

Sustainable living – Everyday lifestyle choices that will have a positive impact on the future of the planet.

Biodegradable products – Products made of material that quickly breaks down and returns to nature such as wood or paper.

Hard waste – Large items that don’t fit in a regular bin, such as couches and coffee tables

White goods – Household appliances, such as fridges and washing machines

E-waste – short for ‘electronic waste’ and refers to any item with a plug, battery or power cord such as computers, phones etc.

Nature strip – The strip of grass between the pavement and the road

Cultural information:

In Australia, local councils have an important role in managing waste and recycling as they provide bins to each household and organise the collection of waste. Local councils also provide information on how to throw away different types of waste properly.

As individuals, we can live a more sustainable life by practicing the 5R’s of sustainable living. These are reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink and repair.

To reduce means trying to have fewer things so you make less waste.
To reuse means to avoid buying new things and using what you have for another purpose.
To recycle means to use old things in a new way or change waste products into something people can use.
To rethink means to ask yourself if your choices are good.
To repair means to fix things instead of throwing them away.

Transcript:

(Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript)

Hi! This is the SBS Learn English podcast, where we help Australians to speak, understand and connect.

My name is Josipa, and because each new topic brings a new set of everyday phrases, like you, I’m still learning English.

Today we are talking about recycling and reducing waste.

To reduce means to have less of something, and to recycle means to change one thing into something else, so people can use it again.

Recently, I’ve been trying to live a more sustainable life.

Living a sustainable life means choosing to live in a way that makes less waste, and which does not make too many problems for our planet.

One way to live a more sustainable life is to make an informed decision about reducing and recycling our waste at home.

Let’s hear how Maryanne and her daughter Charlotte talk about recycling their waste after Charlotte’s birthday party.

Maryanne:

Charlotte, please, can you put the juice boxes in the recycling bin?

Charlotte:

Juice boxes aren’t recyclable, mum. They need to go with the general waste, along with these plastic forks and spoons. I’ll have to chuck them all into the rubbish bin.

Maryanne:

Alright, smarty-pants – after you finish sorting the rubbish, you might as well take out the bins for the garbo.

Why on earth are we talking about garbage? Oh yes, we have the whole episode on recycling.

By the way, you can use ‘Why on earth’ at the beginning of a question when you want to show that you are shocked or angry about something. For example, ‘Why on earth are we still producing so much plastic?’

Let’s look at the words and phrases we’ve just heard.

Maryanne said,

Charlotte, please, can you put the juice boxes in the recycling bin?

In Australia, a bin is where you chuck rubbish. In America and other English-speaking countries, they say ‘garbage can’ or ‘trash can’.

And to chuck something means to throw it. But to chuck out something means to throw it away.

Charlotte replied,

Juice boxes aren’t recyclable, mum. They need to go with the general waste, along with these plastic forks and spoons. I’ll have to chuck them all into the rubbish bin.

Juice boxes and plastic forks and spoons can’t be recycled, meaning we can’t send them to be made into something else, so we need to chuck them in the bin with the general waste.

General waste is waste that cannot be recycled. It is usually buried in the ground in places called landfills. A landfill is a space where waste is thrown and buried.

Maryanne said,

Alright, smarty-pants – after you finish sorting the rubbish, you might as well take out the bins for the garbo.

We call someone a ‘smarty-pants’ when we think someone wants to appear to be very clever. We can use it with a smile as a compliment, but it is usually used as a playful insult.

Sorting the rubbish means dividing it into what can and what cannot be recycled.

Then Maryanne tells Charlotte to:

Take out the bins for the garbo.

Garbo is short for garbage or garbage collector. When we take the bins out for the garbo, we put our garbage bins outside our home for the garbage collectors to pick up.

Living sustainably also means throwing away waste properly, knowing what kind of waste goes where. Local councils make rules and decisions about the waste collection.

In this conversation Maryanne, who has some old furniture that she doesn’t need, is on the phone with Allan - who today, is working at Maryanne’s local council.

Maryanne:

Hi, I’d like to arrange a hard waste pickup, please.

Allan:

I can do that for you. I need to inform you that we don’t pick up white goods. We don’t collect e-waste either, but you can drop them off at a nearby recycling centre. May I please ask what kind of hard waste you have?

Maryanne:

I want to chuck out some old furniture that got eaten by termites. They’ve just been wasting away in the shed.

Allan:

Sure. I’ll arrange a pickup on Wednesday morning. Please make sure that the hard waste is on your nature strip by then.

Ok, so now we are talking about hard waste, which in general are things that take too much space and don’t fit in a regular bin, such as couches and coffee tables.

So, if you have big items that you do not need and want to throw them away, you could call your council and say,

I’d like to arrange a hard waste pickup please.

I’d like to arrange a hard waste pickup please.

Allan from the local council replied,

I need to inform you that we don’t collect white goods. We don’t collect e-waste either, but you can drop it off at a nearby recycling centre.

Allan says that the council doesn’t collect ‘white goods’ and ‘e-waste’.

‘White goods’ are appliances such as fridges, washing machines and dishwashers.

‘E-waste’ are electronic items such as old mobile phones, computers, and televisions.

Allan also said,

We don’t collect e-waste either, but you can drop it off at a nearby recycling centre.

Local councils can probably direct you to recycling centres that accept e-waste and white goods.

To drop off something means to take it and leave it somewhere. In this case, Allan said Maryanne can drop off, or take her e-waste to a nearby recycling centre.

She then said,

I want to chuck out some old furniture that got eaten by termites. They’ve just been wasting away in the shed.

The furniture has been eaten by termites. These are insects that eat wood and they can be quite a problem in parts of Australia.

Now Maryanne’s furniture is wasting away. Wasting away means to become weaker or more rotten, become more like waste.

We can also use this phrase if something is just not being used. For example 'I have been a bit lazy and that exercise equipment I bought has just been wasting away in my garage'.

And lastly Allan said,

Sure. I’ll arrange a pickup on Wednesday morning.Please make sure that the hard waste is on your nature strip by then.

The local council usually picks up any hard waste from the street, from the nature strip.

The nature strip is the strip of grass between the pavement and the road which doesn’t include the sidewalk.

My guest today is Cristina Lazo from SBS Filipino, who believes that the 5Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink and repair can help us live a more sustainable life.

Hi Cristina,

Cristina:

Hi Josipa, thanks for inviting me on the SBS Learn English podcast.

Josipa:

Before we start talking about what 5Rs actually mean, I want to ask you a very practical question. Do you know how often or when local councils collect waste?

Cristina:

A big mystery. I don’t know, nobody does. It is different in different council areas. Usually, councils pick up hard waste from nature strips few times a year. For me, the best indicator is when I see people leaving furniture out for other people to take for free. I’ve got myself a couple of good pieces like that.

Josipa:

Oh, I think we all been there. So, tell me, what exactly do the 5Rs stand for?

Cristina:

They stand for reduce, reuse, recycle, rethink and repair. That’s 5Rs in short. It’s a set of easy to remember rules for trying to live a more sustainable life. For example, if you decide to buy less, you are reducing your waste because you don’t have to throw away your old things. And if you take your own bag to the shops instead of getting a new plastic bag, you are reusing something. That’s already two out of five Rs,

Josipa:

Ok, so we are left with recycle, rethink and repair. We’ve heard a lot about recycling a moment ago, and repair is pretty simple. It means to fix and save something instead of throwing it. But what do you mean by rethink?

Cristina:

In this case, rethink means to ask yourself if the choices you are making in your life are good for the environment. For example, people should know that waste such as glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, tyres, electronics, batteries, construction materials, food and garden waste all have value and can be used again in the form of energy and resources.

Josipa:

Thank you, Cristina.

for previews, updates and to provide feedback.

A big thank you to our educational consultant Professor Lynda Yates, our guest Cristina Lazo, and Paul Nicholson and Coni Laranjeira who voiced the characters of Allan and Maryanne.