Class 6 Science Chapter 16 Garbage In, Garbage Out Extra Questions

CBSE Class 6 Science Chapter 16 Garbage In, Garbage Out Extra Questions and Answers is available here. Students can learn and download the PDF of these questions for free. These extra questions and answers are prepared by our expert teachers as per the latest NCERT textbook and guidelines. Learning these extra questions will help you to score excellent marks in the final exams.

Garbage In, Garbage Out Class 6 Science Extra Questions and Answers

Very Short Answer Questions

1. What is a landfill?
Answer: A low-lying open area is called landfill.

2. What are blue coloured bins used for?
Answer: Blue bins are used for collecting materials that can be recycled.

3. Give example of material that can be used again.
Answer: Plastics, metals and glass.

4. What type of garbage is thrown in green bins?
Answer: Kitchen and other plants or animals wastes.

5. Define composting.
Answer: The rotting and conversion of some materials into manure is called composting.

6. Explain the term vermicomposting.
Answer: The method of preparing compost with the help of redworms is called vermicomposting.

7. What are redworms?
Answer: Redworms are a type of earthworms which help in preparing compost from the kitchen wastes and parts of plants or animals.

8. What is the best way to ‘manage waste’?|
Answer: Management of waste is best through the 3R’s strategy—reduce, reuse, recycle.

9. What do you understand by ‘composting’?
Answer: The rotting and conversion of some materials into manure is called composting.

10. Identify the materials that can be added to a compost pit from the following list.
green leaves, dried leaves, broken toys, pieces of dried stalks of plants, plastic bottles, husk, pieces of newspaper, cardboard, cooked dal, soda bottle

Answer: Green leaves, dried leaves, pieces of dried stalks of plants, husk, pieces of newspaper and cardboard can be added to the compost pit.

11. What is papier-mâchè?
Answer: Papier-mâchè is a paste made of clay and paper in which some rice husk is also mixed.

12. What is a landfill?
Answer: A landfill is a low-lying open area in which biodegradable waste is deposited.

13. Define composting.
Answer: Composting is defined as a method of decomposing organic waste in the presence of bacteria and fungi.

14. What do the 3R’s stand for?
Answer: The 3R’s stand for reduce, reuse and recycle.

15. What is vermicomposting?
Answer: The method of preparing compost with the help of red worms is called vermicomposting.

Short Answer Type Questions

1: Rag pickers always suffer from diseases why?

Answer: Garbage dumps have flies, cockroaches and mosquitoes, which later turn into breeding grounds for micro-organisms that may cause disease. When rag pickers go near these garbage dumps, they get infected by these microorganisms and fall sick.

2: Why earthworms are called farmer friend?

Answer: An earthworm helps in vermicomposting and thus helps in increasing the fertility the soil. Thus, they are called farmer’s friends.

3: Which kind of garbage is not converted into compost by the red worms?

Answer: plastic bags, tins, bottles, glass, aluminium foils, broken bangles could not be converted into compost by the redworms.

4: Do you saw any other organism other than earthworm in a compost pit?

Answer: Sometimes we do see small insects, bugs, beetles, spiders. Then there are microorganisms too.

5: Garbage disposal the responsibility only of the government? do you agree with the statement?

Answer: No, it is our responsibility also. We should use and reduce on garbage. We should use and reuse the thing before throwing it.

6: what do you do with the leftover food at home?

Answer: We should do following to the leftover food

Pre serve properly and reuse
Convert it to some other food preparation and consume.

7: If you and your friend are given the choice of eating in a plastic plate or a banana leaf platter at a party, which one would you prefer and why?

Answer: Banana leaf platter, because.

easy disposal
easy be recycled,
more environment-friendly

8: How will you make a vermicomposting pit?

Answer: A vermicomposting pit is made with a wooden box or big cement rings. A mesh is spread at the bottom of the pit. Vegetable waste, fruit waste, waste paper which is not shiny or coated with plastic, is spread over the mesh. Water is sprinkled to create moisture so that the red worms can live. A vermicomposting pit takes nearly two to four weeks to completely convert waste into manure. Waste material that is rich in oils, salt, meat and vinegar stops the growth of red worms. These red worms have a special structure called gizzards with which they grind food material. A red worm eats food equal to its weight every day. Red worms do not survive in too hot or too cold conditions.

9: Describe steps involved in recycling a paper.

Answer: Steps involved in recycling paper

Tear paper into small pieces.
Soak these pieces in water for a day.
Make a thick paste and spread it on a net or sieve.
Let water drain off completely.
Use an old cloth or newspaper to remove the extra water from the paste and dry it.
Use this paste to get beautiful patterns

10: Enlist all plastic items that we use in our daily life.

11: Why plastics are not suitable for storing cooked foods?

Answer: Plastics are not suitable for storing cooked food because they emit harmful chemicals when they are exposed to high temperatures. Using plastics cause health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and reproductive dysfunction.

12: Why it is important to disposed plastics in a proper way?

Answer: Harmful gases are emitted from burning plastics, which cause cancer and they kill living beings. That is why plastics should be disposed in the right way.

13: Why polythene bags should be avoided for garbage disposal?

Answer: Plastics thrown casually get into drains and sewages, often blocking the way and causing water-logging. So polythene bags should not be used for garbage disposal.

14: Suggest any measure to prevent yourself from the dangerous effect of plastics?

Answer: Measures taken to prevent from the dangerous effects of plastics:

Reduce, reuse and recycle plastics.
Carry jute or cloth bags for shopping
Do not store food items in plastic bags.
Do not burn plastic items.
Recycle plastics so that new plastic items can be made.

15: What kind of waste should be deposited in blue dustbin and in green dustbin?

Answer: Waste that does not decompose should be put in blue dustbins, while waste that decomposes easily should be put in green dustbins.

16. We should not add wastes containing salts, pickles, oil, vinegar, meat and milk products in vermicomposting pit to feed the redworms. Why?

Answer: Addition of substances such as salts, oil, pickles, vinegar, meat and milk products to vermicompost pit causes growth of disease-causing small organisms. They may cause harm to redworms and hinder in preparation of vermicompost.

17. How can the non-useful component be reused?

Answer: The non-useful components of the garbage are separated by Safai Karamcharis. This separated non-useful components of garbage is spread over the landfill and then covered with a layer of soil. Once the landfill is completely full, it is usually converted into pork or a playground. For the next 20 years or so, no building is constructed on it.

18. What do we do to the useful components (biodegradable) of the garbage?

Answer: Generally, useful components of the garbage are used to make compost. Compost are usually developed near the landfill.
(i) For preparing compost, waste materials like fruit and vegetable peel, egg shells, used tea leaves, waste food, dry leaves, newspapers etc. should be dumped in a pit.
(ii) The pit is covered with soil.
(iii) After 20-25 days, observe the garbage. If the garbage is rot, turned black in colour and no foul smell is emitted, it means rotting of garbage is complete and compost is ready to use.

19. What do you mean by composting?

Answer: The garbage containing plant and animal wastes, waste food, when left as such in pits or heaps is acted upon by bacteria, fungus-like organisms causing rotting. Rotting leads to the formation of manure. It is conversion of complex molecules into simple molecules which can be used by plants for growth and development. Thus, rotting and conversion of some organic materials into manure is called composting.

20. Why should we not bum dried plant leaves and husk? What is the best way to get rid of them?

Answer: Burning of dried leaves, husk and other plant parts produces smoke and gases that are harmful to our health. Dried leaves, husk and other plant parts can be used for preparing compost.

21. List waste products produced from an industry.

Answer: The waste products produced from an industry are:

Chemicals
Smoke
Ash
Empty containers such as glass bottles, plastic articles, wrappers.
Plastic bags
Broken things, iron or other metals

22. What will happen if garbage is left open in bin?

Answer: (i) Garbage will rot and bad smell will spread all around the surroundings.
(ii) Garbage will become breeding spot for flies, mosquitoes and other disease- causing small organisms.
(iii) Due to flies, mosquitoes and other organisms many diseases will spread in the community.
(iv) Rotting garbage may cause air pollution and spread of respiratory disease such as breathing problems.

23. What is papier-mache? How does it help us?

Answer: Papier-mache is a paste made from pulp of waste papers and clay used for moulding into boxes, trays, etc. This helps in recycling of paper.

24. The municipality collects garbage in two types of bins—blue and green. Why?

Answer: The blue bin is for materials that can be used again—such as plastics, metals and glass. The green bins are for collecting kitchen and other plant or animal wastes.

25. Which one is better burning heaps of dried leaves or converting them into compost?

Answer: Converting the heaps of dried leaves into compost is better than burning them because burning of leaves produces smoke and gases that are harmful to health. Converting the leaves into compost will not produce any pollution and will also enrich the soil.

26. How do redworms convert the waste into compost in a compost pit?

Answer: Redworms do not have teeth. They have a structure called ‘gizzard’, which helps them in grinding their food. The redworms eat the waste material, which is ground in the gizzard. The ground material is then excreted out of its body and is called compost.

27. Why should recycled plastics not be used for storing eatables?

Answer: Some shopkeepers use plastic bags that have been used earlier for some other purpose. Sometimes bags collected by rag pickers are also used after washing them. Using such bags and containers for storing eatables can be harmful.

28. Why should the waste produced be managed?

Answer: Waste that is not managed can cause health and social problems.

Improperly disposed food waste attracts disease carriers like pests, pigs and flies which can spread diseases and can cause health problems.
Inappropriate disposal of chemicals, pesticides and other wastes can contaminate water and land.

29. The pie charts shown in figure below are based on waste segregation method adopted by two families X and Y respectively.
Which of the two families X or Y do you think is more environmentally conscious and why?

Answer: X is more environmentally conscious because the kitchen waste and polythene bags are disposed off separately. They separate biodegradable waste and non-biodegradable wastes, which are processed separately.

30. Write three ill-effects of plastics.
Answer:

Burning plastics cause emission of poisonous gas.
Plastic waste is eaten by animals resulting in their death.
Plastics choke sewer system.

31. Write two hazards of waste accumulation.
Answer:

They are a source of bad odour.
They cause land pollution.

32. Write two precautions that need to be taken while making a vermicompost.
Answer:

The pit should be about 3 feet deep.
The waste should be loosely packed with little moisture.

33. Why is recycling considered an efficient method of disposing off wastes?

Answer: By recycling, non-biodegradable materials are diverted from landfills and incinerators, preventing soil and air pollution.

34. Explain the term ‘source reduction’ with respect to management and disposal of waste.

Answer: Source reduction means techniques which reduce the waste generated. For example, reduction in waste by composting.

35. How can you reduce the use of plastics?
Answer:

Use paper or cloth bags in place of plastic bags.
Educate friends and family members about harmful effects of plastics.
Avoid buying frozen foods which are preserved in plastic packing.

Long Answer Type Questions

1: Explain vermicomposting.

Answer: Conversion of the waste generated in the kitchen into organic matter with the combined action of earthworms and micro-organisms is called vermicomposting. The organic matter so formed is used as manure for plants

2: Explain the useful components of garbage.

Answer: Useful garbage components are those that can be decayed easily. The process of decaying is known as composting. Useful garbage components are fruit and vegetable waste, plant and animal waste, tea leaves, coffee grounds and paper. These useful components of garbage are converted into manure in the soil.

3: Explain the non- useful components of garbage.

Answer: Non-useful garbage components include polythene bags, plastics, glass and aluminium foils. These take longer to decay. Decaying of these non-useful components is known as decomposition. When non-useful components decay, they release harmful gases that damage the environment. To avoid the adverse impact, these garbage items are sent for recycling.

4: How can you make a vermicomposting pit?

5: Explain the disadvantages of using plastics bags and measure to prevent from the

dangerous effects of plastic bags.

Answer: We use many plastic items such as tooth brush, combs, containers, bottles, shoes, toys, wires, frames and bags every day but using plastic is very harmful in terms of health and as well as the environment. Plastics are not suitable for storing cooked food because they emit harmful chemicals when they are exposed to high temperatures. Using plastics cause health problems such as heart disease, lungs infection and diabetes. Plastics should be disposed in the right way because harmful gases are emitted from burning plastics, which cause cancer and they kill living beings. That is why Plastics thrown casually get into drains and sewages, often blocking the way and causing water-logging. So polythene bags should not be used for garbage disposal.

Measures taken to prevent from the dangerous effects of plastics:

Reduce, reuse and recycle plastics.
Carry jute or cloth bags for shopping
Do not store food items in plastic bags.
Do not burn plastic items.
Recycle plastics so that new plastic items can be made.
Waste that does not decompose should be put in blue dustbins, while waste that decomposes easily should be put in green dustbins

6. List the biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste products in your school What are the best ways to get rid of this garbage?

Answer: Biodegradable wastes:
(i) Paper container
(ii) Chalk boxes
(iii) Pencil scraps
(iv) Faeces and urine
(v) Loose and tom waste paper of exercise notebooks and diaries
(vi) Dropout leaves and twigs
(vii) Fruit peels and flower wastes

Non-biodegradable wastes:
(i) Broken glass wares
(ii) Plastic and geometrical instruments
(iii) Plastic and polythene containers
(iv) Wrappers of toffee, aluminium foil
(v) Broken iron wire pieces

Disposal of Wastes:
Biodegradable garbage can be put in a pit made in one comer of the school compound. Cover the garbage with soil, spray some quantity of water. When this pit is full of degradable items cover it with a mixture of dung and clay for a few weeks. .
After a few weeks when an odour stops coming out from the pit. It indicates that all the degradable material has been converted into compost manure.
The non-biodegradable garbage can be sold to Kabari or can be dumped in a landfill.

7. What are the uses of plastic?

Answer: Uses:
(i) Plastic container can be used to store edible goods.
(ii) Goods packed in plastic pack can be taken anywhere easily and are water proof.
(iii) Plastic containers or articles are good-looking, light in weight, cheap and durable.
(iv) Plastic containers such as bottles can be used to store chemicals. No chemical effects on it.
(v) Plastic can be recycled.

8. What are the demerits of plastic?

Answer: Demerits of plastic:
(i) Plastics give out harmful gases upon heating or burning. These gases may cause many health problems, including cancer in humans.
(ii) Some people often fill garbage in plastic bags and throw it away in open. When stray animals look for food in these bags, they swallow plastic bags along with food. Sometimes, they die due to this.
(iii) The plastic bags thrown away carelessly on roads and other places get into drains and the sewer system. These plastic bags choke the drains. As a result dirty water spills on road. It causes spread of bad smell and diseases.

9. What suggestions you will give to members of locality to solve the problem of waste material?

Answer: I will suggest the member of my locality to use biodegradable waste in preparing compost.
To take people in confidence, you should make efforts to show the path for preparing compost:
(i) You should select a comer of your locality.
(ii) Dig a pit at open place and ask all the residents to throw their kitchen waste in this pit. Cover the biodegradables in the pit with layers of soil.
(iii) Cover the pit with the mixture of soil and dung.
(iv) After 5-6 weeks, open the pit and show it to the resident of your colony. Also explain that their disposed off material has converted into compost manure.
(v) You can convince RWA (Resident Welfare Associations) to use this manure for colony parks and also in plant pots kept in individual houses for , beautification.

10. Why should we be careful in using plastic bags to store cooked food items?

Answer:
(i) Sometimes the plastic bags may not be suitable for keeping eatables. Consuming food packed in such plastic bags could be harmful to our health.
(ii) Many a time shopkeepers use plastic bags that have been used earlier for other purpose.
(iii) Sometimes bags collected by rag pickers are also used after washing them. Use of such recycled plastic bags to keep food items could be harmful for our health. So, shopkeepers can be stressed upon the use of plastic bags approved by the authorities.

11. Observe the bins and waste material heaps and suggest what materials can be used for preparing handicrafts materials.

Answer: The following handicraft items can be prepared from the waste materials usually seen in bins and waste storage.

Designs and sceneries on cardboard, pencil scrab can be used.
We can prepare basket, toys, flower vase, etc.
Egg trays can be prepared by papier-mache prepared from waste paper decorated with the help of different colours and can be used.
Empty earthen cup (kullarh) can be used as Janjhi by making small hole in it and putting a burnt candle. Light comes out in different designs.
Flower vase can be prepared with the help of ice-cream sticks.
Different types of toys are prepared with the help of plastic cup, spoon, plate, forks.
Models of historical monuments can be designed with the help of empty injection bottles and amputes.

You can prepare other objects with the help of your friends, brothers, sisters, relatives, parents and teachers.

12. Explain one wag of recycling of waste paper.

Answer: One way to recycle the waste papers is as given below:

Collect old newspapers, magazines, used notebooks, envelopes and tom out used papers.
Make small pieces of paper of these items and put them in a bucket or any other container submerged in water for one or two days.
Make thick paste of wet paper by pounding it. Spread the waste paste on the wire mesh fixed to the frame. You can use a large-sized seive in place of a frame.
Pat the layer of paste gently to make the layer of the paste as uniform as possible. You may spread an old cloth or a sheet of newspaper on the paste to soak up the extra water.
Remove the layer of paste from the frame and spread it on a sheet of newspaper in the sun. Put some weight on the comers of the newspaper so that these do not curl up.
You can decorate the paper by adding food colours, dried leaves, flower petals or pieces of coloured paper in the paste.
This will help you to get a recycled paper with beautiful patterns on it.

13.What can we do to reduce overuse of plastics?
Answer:

Re-use of the plastic bags whenever it is possible to do so without any adverse affects. Neglect re-use of plastic bags for storage or storage of food items to store food items.
Insist shopkeepers to use paper bags or jute bags to carry goods purchased,
Do not use plastic bags, especially to store eatables.
Do not throw plastic bags.
Don’t fill plastic bags with wastes of plants and animals, such as peels of vegetables and fruits, egg shells, bone pieces of animals, and throw them here and there in open places.
Animals may eat such plastic bags for the sake of food items. Later on these cause death of animals such as cow. buffaloes, dogs and other stray animals. These plastic bags, sometimes suffocate them or choke the alimentary canal which causes indigestion of food and elimination of undigested food.
Do not bum plastic bags and other plastic items because they emit harmful gases.

14. Municipality provides two types of dustbins for garbage collection. One coloured with blue colour and other with green colour. From following wastes which you will put in the which dustbin?
Plastic materials, metals and glass items, wastes of plants and animals, peels of fruits and vegetables, dried leaves and twigs, remains of meat like flesh and hopes.

Answer: (i) The material which can be recycled should be put in the blue dustbin. These materials are: plastic materials, waste metals and glass. It means that the materials which can be recycled and reused should be put in the blue dust bin. These materials cannot rot but can be recycled.

(ii) The wastes of plants and animals, peels of fruits and vegetables, dried leaves and plant twigs, kitchen wastes and other wastes of plant and animal wastes, etc. should be dumped in the green bin or bag. This means that biodegradables are collected in the green dustbin which can be used to prepare compost.

15. Why do rag-pickers always seem to suffer from some disease or the other?

Answer: Rag-pickers come across different sorts of wastes. While they are collecting rags they are subjected to chemical poisons, infectious materials and hazardous materials discarded as wastes. Since they are always malnourished they tend to suffer from diseases like tuberculosis and cancer, retarded growth and anaemia.

16. What would happen if waste material is not collected from the waste material bins for many days?
Answer:

A toxic odour will develop in the surroundings.
Large number of mosquitoes and pests will begin to settle.
Many diseases will spread.
The air gets polluted.
Unhygienic conditions will develop.

17. Distinguish between biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.
Answer:

Biodegradable wastes	Non-biodegradable wastes
These are wastes which can be broken down to harmless or non-poisonous substances by the action of microorganisms.	These are wastes which cannot be broken down to harmless or non-poisonous substances by the action of micro-organisms.
These wastes undergo rotting.	These wastes do not undergo rotting or take a very long time for rotting
Example: domestic sewage, newspapers and vegetable matter.	Example: polythene bags, plastics, glass, aluminium cans, iron nails and DDT.

18. Why should we not burn plastic items?

Answer: Plastic items should not be burnt because of the following reasons:

They do not burn easily.
The burnt pieces may be eaten by cows and choke them.
The gases emanated prove to be a health hazard for humans.
The ashes left on burning are toxic.

19. What are domestic wastes? Give some examples.

Answer: Domestic wastes are the wastes produced from the households by the daily
activities. Example:

Kitchen wastes—vegetables, fruits and others.
Human excreta.
Garbage—newspapers, rags, etc.
Plastic bags.

20. What can we do to minimise overuse of plastics and deal with garbage?

Answer: Overuse of plastics can be minimised by following the steps given below:

Reduce the use of plastic bags.
Carry a cloth or a jute bag whenever going out for shopping.
Do not use plastic bags to store eatables.
Use vermicomposting at home and deal with kitchen waste usefully.
Recycle paper.
Make family, friends and others aware of the harmful effects of plastic.

21. Why are plastics harmful?

Answer: All kinds of plastics give out harmful gases, upon heating or burning. These gases may cause many health problems, including cancer, in humans. Stray animals, while looking for food in the garbage thrown in plastic bags, end up swallowing them. Sometimes, they die due to this. The plastic bags thrown away carelessly on roads and other places get intodrains and the sewer system. As a result, drains get choked and the water spills on the roads. During heavy rains, it might even create a flood like situation.

22. What are 3R’s ? How should we adopt them? Explain.

Answer: The 3R’s are:
(a) Reduce the production of wastes.
(b) Reuse the wastes.
(c) Recycle the wastes.

Reduce

We should avoid plastic bags and carry our own cloth bags while going for
shopping.
We should avoid using disposable plastic and paper items.
We should take only what we can consume during taking meals.
We should use both sides of a paper.
We should use paper products made from recycled paper.

Reuse

We should reuse plastic items like bags, bottles, cups, etc.
We should reuse empty glass bottles as containers for storing things.
We should reuse old cloth, jute or paper bags instead of using new plastic bags.
We should donate instead of throwing away clothes, etc.
We should donate them, as these items can be reused.

Recycle

Old newspapers can be recycled to make tissue paper and cardboard.
Organic waste (from plant/food sources) can be allowed to rot and manure can be prepared.
Recycling of glass, plastics, aluminium cans and other metals should be encouraged to produce useful products.