NCERT Solutions for Class 3 The World Around Us Chapter 12 Taking Charge of Waste (PDF) – 2027

They are cleaning the park together.

• Some children sweep dry leaves with brooms.
• Two children fill a sack with litter.
• Some carry baskets of waste.
• The teachers pick up waste too.
• They put the waste into a blue dustbin and a green dustbin.

They are cleaning the park for National Cleanliness Day (30 January). The banner in the picture says so.

A clean park is safe for people and animals. Garbage makes people ill, and animals can die by eating plastic.

Yes, I have. There is a pile of waste at the corner of my street. Wrappers and paper lie outside my school gate too.

Yes. Waste comes from the things we do every day. We throw away old clothes, tins, bottles, paper, peels of vegetables and fruits, plastic wrappers, pencil shavings and old batteries.

Sometimes this waste ends up in garbage piles.

Finally, we put peels in the green dustbin, and wrappers, packets and tins in the blue dustbin.

“My family makes vegetable peels every day. We also throw away plastic wrappers and milk packets. We put the peels in the green dustbin.”

Many friends named the same things, because most homes make the same kind of waste.

I feel sad when I see a garbage pile like this. It smells bad and looks ugly. Flies and mosquitoes sit on it. Cows eat the plastic in it. People living near it fall ill.

Yes, we can. Managing waste is in our own hands.

• Reduce — make less waste. Carry a cloth bag.
• Reuse — use things again.
• Separate — peels in the green dustbin; paper, plastic, glass and metal in the blue dustbin.

Never burn plastic.

Do this: Walk round your school and your street. Note the clean places and the dirty places.

Sample answer: My school ground was clean. The drain behind the wall had wrappers and a broken slipper. People throw them over the wall.

The ground and corridors of my school are clean. They are swept every morning. But wrappers and paper cups lie outside the gate after the break.

Yes. Pencil shavings and bits of paper lie under the desks. Wrappers lie in the corner of the ground after lunch.

Draw your street or paste its photo. Circle in red any garbage, wastewater or smoke.

• Garbage heap — the dustbin is far away.
• Wastewater — the drain is choked with plastic.
• Smoke — someone burns leaves and plastic.

My grandmother told me these things.

• We keep two buckets — one for peels, one for paper and plastic.
• The peels go into a pit in the yard and become compost.
• A cart takes the paper and plastic away every morning.
• Nobody in our lane burns plastic.

Yes. I carry a cloth bag to the shop. I take a steel bottle to school. I do not buy snacks in wrappers.

I can help to reduce waste in these ways:

• Carry a cloth bag, not a plastic bag.
• Carry a steel or copper bottle.
• Say no to food packed in wrappers.
• Buy only what I need.
• Give my old toys and books to those who need them.

Other ways I can help:

• Give clothes that have become small to a younger child.
• Pass on last year’s books to the next class.
• Join the cleaning drive in school.
• Teach younger children to use the dustbin.
• Make a gift from waste material instead of buying one.

Reuse means using a thing again.

• Use paper written on one side for rough work.
• Refill a steel or copper bottle.
• Wrap gifts in newspaper or old cloth.
• Make quilts and bags from old clothes.
• Make toys and a paper bag from old newspaper.

I made a pen stand. I washed an empty tin and wrapped an old calendar sheet round it. I wrote “Thank You” on it. I gave it to the person who cleans our street.

The people all worked hard together. They stopped throwing waste on roadsides, in corners and in open spaces. They reduced their waste and reused things. They kept waste apart in green and blue dustbins and sent it for recycling.

My father told me about Indore. Waste is picked up from every house every morning. People keep two dustbins at home. Nobody throws waste on the road.

The Swachh Bharat Mission is a cleanliness drive of our country. People clean their homes, schools, streets and public places. Dustbins are kept so waste does not lie in the open.

The banner at the start of the chapter shows the Swachh Bharat Mission and National Cleanliness Day together.

Two dustbins are used so that two kinds of waste do not get mixed.

Kept apart, one kind becomes compost and the other can be recycled. Some villages even keep a separate bin for each material.

Green dustbin: leaves, onion peels, rotten fruit, eggshells.

Blue dustbin: plastic bottles, light bulbs, paper, used plastic milk packets, cloth.

Sample list:

• I can keep my room tidy.
• I can put wrappers and paper in the dustbin.
• I can put my books and bag back in their place.
• I can pick up my pencil shavings.
• I can help to sweep the floor at home.

Sample list:

1. Broom (jhadoo)
2. Long-handled broom
3. Dustpan
4. Spade
5. Rake, for dry leaves
6. Basket and sack
7. Dustbin on wheels
8. Gloves

Sample list:

1. Broom
2. Mop or wet cloth (pocha)
3. Bucket
4. Dustpan
5. Duster for the shelves
6. Brush for the washing place
7. Dustbin with a lid

Draw four or five tools from your list. Colour them and write each name below.

Sample answer: I drew a broom, a long broom, a dustpan, a bucket and a mop.

Waste is created by the things we do every day. We throw away old clothes, tins, bottles, paper, peels of vegetables and fruits, plastic wrappers, pencil shavings and old batteries. The more we buy, the more we throw away.

Waste thrown in the open forms garbage piles.

We manage waste in three ways, in this order:

1. Reduce — make less waste; use a cloth bag.
2. Reuse — use things again, like paper for rough work.
3. Separate and recycle — leaves and peels in the green dustbin; metal, glass, plastic and paper in the blue dustbin.

Never burn plastic.

Sample list (look around your own home and school too):

Sample titles: Our Zero Waste Village · Clean Village, Happy Village

Draw clean roads with trees, a green and a blue dustbin, and a child putting waste in the right one. Use only three or four bright colours.

Clean Town: I feel happy. My roads are clean.
Dirty Town: I feel sad. Garbage piles smell, and mosquitoes make my people ill.
Clean Town: My people reduce, reuse and use the right dustbin.
Dirty Town: I will ask my people to do that too!

A party makes waste like plastic plates, wrappers, gift paper, balloons and leftover food. I can avoid it like this:

Keep a green and a blue dustbin for the little waste that is left.

Yes. In a forest, dried leaves, branches and animal waste fall on the ground. They rot slowly and mix with the soil. They become food for plants and for tiny animals in the soil.

Plastic does not rot. Plastic thrown in a forest stays there for a very long time.