2016, WARRNAMBOOL, VIC, Australia

In 2016 Warrnambool Special Development School (WSDS) students Destiny Miller, Zander Currie, Caleb Cocking and Caleb Mathews placed in the final competition for their proposal Plastic is Drastic. They saw that they could make a bigger difference in the recycling of plastics at their school by putting strategies in place to dispose of ALL plastics in a sustainable way.

In Australia we use around 5 billion plastic bags each year. 150 million of these in up littering our environment harming our waterways and our wildlife (Clean-up Australia Day).

WSDS has always recycled hard plastic, such as plastic bottles and yogurt containers but soft plastics always went to land fill, such as plastic wrap and plastic bags. The students did some research and found there was a local business that collects these ‘soft plastics’ for recycling and re-use.

As a result the school has put the following policies in place indefinitely to help reduce plastic going to landfills and into the environment:

1. Educating students and teachers in the school about the damage that plastic can cause when dumped into landfill polluting not only our water catchment but our oceans too.
2. Continue to discourage the use of plastic through regular rubbish free lunch days, promoting the use of re-useable plastic containers in lunchboxes and promote rubbish free foods, clearly labeled bins in each classroom and the introduction of the ‘Recycled Scarecrow’ competition.
3. Implement a soft plastic collection throughout WSDS via 3 central locations around the school where each class can take their soft plastic at the end of each week. While at the end of each term the bags of soft plastic are collected from each location and taken to a local collection centre where they are compressed and then taken to another location for recycling and re use.
4. Encourage and advise families in our school to minimize the use of plastic in the home and how to dispose of it in a sustainable way when they do have it via our school newsletter.
5. Inform the wider community that ‘Plastic is Drastic’ through ‘Kids Teaching Kids’ days in Warrnambool, so far taking our message to 6 other schools in our catchment. We conduct two workshops called ‘Plastic is Drastic’ watching an iMovie about why plastic is drastic and making ‘recycled scarecrows’ using plastic we collect that would go to landfill otherwise.

The students believe these are really easy strategies to implement in any school and encourage all schools to follow suit.

2013 Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia

The Environmental Action Team at Warrnambool Special Developmental School, (WWEB Patrol), was a finalist in the 2013 Caring for Our Watersheds competition.

The students realised the potential of reducing the amount of rubbish going into landfill by stopping organic waste entering the equation. They knew that by removing organic waste from landfill bins the amount would be reduced but they wanted to know by how much.

Firstly, over a ten week period, the students measured out a total of 172kg of organic waste entering landfill. From this, the students decided they would redirect the organic waste in a sustainable way, by obtaining compost bins and worm farms.

A number of ‘kitchen caddies’ were purchased and placed next to the rubbish bins to help remind people that they should be putting organic waste in these bins, to be later composted and used on the vegetable garden at school, or put in the worm farm to create worm juice, or simply fed to the school chooks.

Not only did they redirect the organic waste they also aimed to educate the school community on a weekly basis. Each week the school newsletter continues to give hints and tips for recycling at home and also informs parents of the student’s efforts at school, in terms of sustainability.

One student says, “Our project is ongoing and continues to grow. This has been made easier and more effective with the generosity of the Caring for our Watersheds program.”