Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will focus on management of municipal and household waste streams. You will learn about product lifecycles, from design through end of use, and the related environmental impacts, including the conduct of waste audits. Specific lifecycle studies might focus on council or local government recycling initiatives, or composting at a household, community, or industrial scale. You will explore how social innovation initiatives such as makers spaces, men's and women's sheds and other similar enterprises keep materials in use longer while also benefitting social capital.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Undergraduate Courses: Completion of 72 credit points. Postgraduate Courses: nil prerequisites. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2026
Term 1 - 2027 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 50% |
| 2. Presentation | 50% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: In-class student feedback
Students responded positively to the personal waste audit assessment, noting its relevance to their everyday lives and practical application of unit concepts.
Retain the personal waste audit assessment and further enhance reflective learning activities that enable students to connect their findings with broader waste management and sustainability issues.
In Progress
Source: Lecturer reflection
Lecturer reflection identified that the 10-minute oral defence timeframe within the waste audit assessment was insufficient for students to fully discuss their findings and application of unit concepts, despite generally strong performance.
Increase the oral defence duration to a minimum of 15 minutes to support more detailed student responses and a more comprehensive evaluation of learning outcomes.
In Progress
Source: Lecturer reflection
Students were exposed to social innovation concepts through tutorials and some assessment activities. Greater emphasis on this topic within the unit would further support students in evaluating socially innovative waste management solutions.
Include social innovation as a standalone weekly topic and explore opportunities for guest presentations from the Social Impact Lab to provide authentic examples of social innovation in practice.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Critically analyse varying forms of information relevant to global waste issues
- Evaluate and transform global solutions to be relevant at a local scale
- Generate suggested solutions to complex waste problems
- Transmit knowledge and ideas to others through outcomes of waste audits.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Presentation | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • |
| 4 - Research | • | • | ||
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | ||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | ||
| 7 - Leadership | • | |||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | • | |||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |