It's not all about poo! Sparkling Success a different story

Middle  Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking 

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priorities: Sustainability Priority

Cooperative Learning Activity

1. With a partner, read what happens when an inventor views discarded water differently...

"The story starts here: a carrot farm in regional Victoria owned by one of the country's biggest producers, Rocky Lamattina & Sons. The family business produces 65,000 tonnes (of carrots) every year off its two properties.

While the majority make it to the end of the packing line at the company's Wemen facility, a constant stream of misfits are removed and sent to its juicing plant near Mildura.

15 per cent of what the company harvests is crushed. A small amount of the split, broken or flawed vegies are turned into fresh carrot juice for domestic consumers. But the majority are used to make concentrate, mainly for the export market.

Concentrate is basically juice that has been condensed to make storage and shipping easier and cheaper. And the one bulky thing that's taken out to create this more compact liquid is water - around 500 to 600 litres for every tonne of carrots.

At the company's old juicing plant, it used to end up in the sewerage system.

ANGELO LAMATTINA: We used to keep the water for a short time if we needed it to - mainly to wash down the floor and stuff like that and then after that we used to just dispose of it.

When the company built a new crushing facility just out of town next to a farm, the concentrate by-products were put to better use. The pulp is now fed to livestock and some of the water is treated and used for irrigation. Then, along came inventor Dr Bruce Kambouris with his ambitious plan to turn this drop into a drink."

Read what happens next!

Read the following video transcript from Landline 26 April 2016: Sparkling Success

The video can be seen at Vimeo

Carrot Concentrate

Read about the story from ABC News here or Local Copy here

2. The Weekly Times picked up on this story the year before and explains what Dr Bruce Kambouris' ideas around reusing  water from vegetables were instead of it going to the water treatment plant.

Together with your partner, you are to describe in ONE paragraph the innovative idea.

Other Resources:

Disrupt Magazine

FMCG - 21 November 2021

3. Together, work out the amount of water saved each year from carrots using the following information:

• Rocky Lamattina & Sons produces 65,000 tonnes of carrot products a year.

• While most are sold as whole vegetables, around 15 per cent do not make the cut.

• The rejects, which are usually broken or split, are taken to the company's juicing facility near Mildura and turned into concentrate mainly for the export market.

• Up to 600 litres of water is removed for every tonne of carrots processed.

4. Rocky Lamattina & Sons in the past had to pay for this water to be taken from their factory. Now they give a small portion (5%) to the farmer next door for his irrigation and feeding his sheep, the rest is sold to Dr Kambouris for 25 cents/L. 

How much money will Rocky Lamattina & Sons make?

5. Dr Kambouris' competition is Perrier's 750mL Sparkling Water which sells at $23.99 per case of 12. It will take $6M to set up the bottling plant and a further $2M to market this product.

When will this product break even and become viable as a business?

What price do you think Dr Kambouris should sell his water for?

5.

Discuss with a partner and list your answers to the following questions. Share with the class.

Can you "see" other ways to "create" water instead of it being sent to the water treatment plant?

2. You are to describe Lalita's experiments to your partner in great detail answering the following questions: 

• How was the experiment thought out in the first place?

• Why were corncobs used?

• What the experiment repeatable?

• What is the % of clean water produced?

• Do you think this method is feasible in India, Africa, or, other developing countries?

• What would be the outcomes if it was feasible?

Drugs and Waste Water Detection: What's to know?

Secondary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability
Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Ethical Understanding

Philosophy

Cooperative Learning Activity

 Overview

As a group, you are to examine the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program. Biennially, the ACIC produces a report and has done so since March 2017.

"Much of the harm Australian’s suffer at the hands of serious and organised crime is due to illicit drugs and the level of community harm increases in line with consumption. Since 2016, the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program has provided leading-edge, coordinated national research and intelligence on illicit drugs ­­– and licit drugs that can be abused – with a specific focus on methylamphetamine and other high-risk substances.

Wastewater analysis is widely applied internationally as a tool to measure and interpret drug use within national populations. The ACIC’s wastewater program gives us valuable insight into trends in drug consumption across Australia and can identify new sources of threat from serious and organised crime.

By analysing the findings of the program, government, law enforcement, health, education and community organisations can have informed national conversations about drug trends and develop targeted policies." (Source: ACIC)

Activity

1. In groups of 3 - 4 students, you are to

on the stimulus material provided.

2. Report 21 was released on 13 March 2024

"Report 21 of the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program covered sampling from August 2022 to August 2023. Nationally, 62 wastewater sites were monitored, covering 57% of the Australian population.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission commissioned The University of Queensland, and through it the University of South Australia, to undertake the data collection and analysis that underpins the report.

Since our last report, methylamphetamine, cocaine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA) consumption increased tangibly. More than 16.5 tonnes of methylamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and MDMA combined was consumed between August 2022 and August 2023, representing a 17% increase in consumption of these drugs from the previous year. When THC (cannabis) is included, more than 30 tonnes of the 5 illicit drugs was consumed nationally.

The 1.5 tonne increase in national methylamphetamine consumption is of considerable concern, due to the significant community harms caused by the drug. Of the estimated $12.4 billion spent on methylamphetamine, cocaine, MDMA and heroin between August 2022 and August 2023, methylamphetamine accounted for 85% of this expenditure."