We use materials to make everything that humans own, use or eat.
It is vital that we reduce, reuse and recycle these precious resources in our everyday lives.
Materials are available to us as finite or non-renewable resources, as the Earth only contains a certain amount of metal, fossil fuels and rocks. We can grow more food, using energy from the sun, but depend on materials to help us harvest and prepare our food. This means we must take care of what we have here on Earth and make sure there will be enough materials and resources for everyone in the future, as well as now. If we manage to do this we call it sustainable, meaning we will be able to keep doing activities into the future. If we don’t manage our human activities in a sustainable way then we cannot continue to live on Earth.
The resources below will help you understand how the materials we use everyday are made and how they are recycled.
