Recycler - Helping the world recycle

It was a dark night just like any other. The stars were shining brightly and everything was very quiet, when suddenly there was a strange noise. It could have been the wind in the trees or a bird snoring, but it wasn’t. The strange noise seemed to be coming from the sky. With a sound like squidgy mud, another star appeared. The new star was not like any of the others, it was bigger and brighter and blue.

In fact it wasn’t a star at all, high above the Earth a spaceship had arrived. On board were two visitors from a small blue furry planet, who had travelled a very, very, very long way. Their names were Captain Busta, who looked like a blue fluffy monkey and his assistant Private Pong, looked like a brown furry ball. Captain Busta and Private Pong were on a very special mission.

Inside the spaceship Busta was talking to his friend Poogle, who was a very clever computer.

‘Are we nearly there yet Poogle?’ Busta asked for the tenth time. 

‘Yes Busta!’ said Poogle, as her lights flashed in a slightly annoyed way. ‘We are just arriving at planet Earth’.

‘At last!’ said Busta, excitedly. 

‘Brrip,’ said Pong, sounding just as excited.

‘When does our mission start Poogle?’ asked Busta, hopping up and down with excitement.

‘First thing in the morning,’ replied Poogle the computer, sounding a bit less annoyed.

Poogle secretly liked answering questions, even though Busta did ask the same things most days. 

‘OK Poogle,’ said Busta trying to look serious. ‘Erm…What was our mission again?’  

Poogle’s lights began to flash. ‘Oh Busta!’ said Poogle. ‘I’ll explain it all again’. 

Busta looked relieved. ‘Thanks Poogle’ he said.

‘Right,’ said Poogle. ‘Let’s start at the beginning.’

Poogle showed Busta and Pong pictures of beautiful green fields and forests full of trees, birds and animals.  

‘Planet Earth is a beautiful place,’ explained Poogle. ‘But some of the people who live there are making quite a mess.’ 

‘Humans are throwing away too much rubbish, and this isn’t good for the Earth’, Poogle continued.  

Poogle showed a picture of a giant hole in the ground which was absolutely full of rubbish. ‘This is a landfill site’, explained Poogle. ‘It is full of all the things humans throw away in their rubbish bins.’  

‘What a mess!’ said Busta, staring at the huge horrible heap. 

The heap was so big he couldn’t even see where it ended, it stretched on and on into the distance. 

‘Brip!’ exclaimed Pong. 

‘Yes Pong. It is a waste,’ agreed Busta. 

‘Correct’, bleeped Poogle. ‘All of the things that have been thrown away and buried in this landfill site have been made using the earth’s resources and it really doesn't make sense to waste them. Some of these things have been used just once and then thrown away and some of them could have been recycled instead’.

‘Re…cycled?’ said Busta looking at all the rubbish and wondering what it all meant. 

Suddenly Poogle the computer’s lights flashed in a very important way. ‘Captain Busta and Private Pong, your mission is to help the people of Earth to recycle more’.

‘OK Poogle’, said Busta. ‘You can rely on us!’

Busta looked a bit confused. ’Erm, Poogle... what is recycling?’ he asked. 

Poogle lit up her screen to show Busta and Pong some pictures to help her explain about recycling. ‘A lot of the things humans throw away like empty metal cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles and jars, paper and cardboard could be recycled or made into amazing new things instead,’ explained Poogle. 

‘Really,’ said Busta, his eyes widening in amazement. ‘Like what?’

‘Well,’ said Poogle, showing a picture of a metal can. ‘Metal cans like that one could be recycled and become parts of planes, cars, bicycles, or even robots’.

‘Woooow’, said Busta, imagining all the metal cans in rubbish bins turning into robots. 

‘Paper like that,’ continued Poogle, showing Busta and Pong an old comic book ‘could be turned into a new comic, a newspaper, a magazine or even a new toilet roll!’

‘What about that plastic bottle?’ asked Busta. 

‘Well,’ said Poogle, her lights flashing, ‘that plastic bottle could become a new plastic bottle or even a new fleece jumper!’

‘The more humans can recycle, the less things will be wasted in landfill sites’, continued Poogle.

‘So,’ said Busta,’everyone can help to keep the Earth a nicer place just by recycling?’  

‘Correct’, bleeped Poogle. 

‘So, how do humans recycle?’ asked Busta. 

‘It’s easy,’ replied Poogle. ‘They have special recycling bins for all the things that can be recycled’. 

‘And there are lots of recycling bins all over the place on Earth’ said Poogle proudly showing pictures of special bins of all shapes and sizes. ‘Most humans have them at home and at school, all you have to do is remember to use them’. 

‘Brip Blap’, said Pong sounding excited.

‘You’re right Pong’, said Busta. ‘Recycling bins are a good idea’. 

‘We’d better get some sleep Pong’, yawned Busta heading for his bedroom. ‘Our mission to help the people of Earth to save their planet starts tomorrow’.

‘Blip frap’, said Pong. 

‘Good night Pong’, said Busta.

‘Planet Earth,’ thought Busta drifting off to sleep imagining all the exciting things recycling can do. 

Busta’s blue furry mind slowly filled with different kinds of recycling bins as he thought about using them to help save the Earth on his recycling mission. ‘Woooow,’ he thought, I can’t wait!’