From the Enviro Team
Congratulations! Keep Victoria Beautiful Awards.
Well done Paula! On Thursday night, Paula was declared the winner at the 2021 Keep Victoria Beautiful Sustainable Cities Award in the Community Education category. This award recognises individuals or groups that led a campaign or project that brings about empowerment and behaviour change that builds community. It’s great for Paula and the MGC community to be acknowledged in this way. She was also awarded the prestigious Dame Phyllis Frost award, which recognises outstanding achievements of an individual in the field of Sustainability. We couldn’t be prouder of her achievements!
Paula’s awards recognize the work that Paula has done above and beyond her role in the MGC sustainability team as waste minimization leader. It was achieved through working with students to map out a plan (we wrote a Waste Avoidance and Zero Waste to Landfill policy), clearly communicating the expectations around how to reduce personal waste to students, staff and parents, through the use of newsletters and school community meetings, Paula managed to engage with large numbers of parents and helped them to understand the reasons why, as a school, we wanted to reduce the amount of plastic packaging coming from home. These change initiatives have not just affected what we do at school but also what happens in our families’ homes. Our push to reduce waste has helped our parents see the connection between consumer choices, household behaviour and climate emissions. So, some reminders to our families so they can continue to help:
- Use reusable containers, beeswax wraps and plastic free alternatives to wrap school lunches.
- Encourage your child to utilize the onsite solar composters for ALL food waste.
- Use reusable/washable face masks.
- Say Nup to the Single Use Cup. Bring a reusable cup for take aways. Over 1 billion single use cups go into landfill in Australia alone. Download the Green Caffeen App and find cafes in your area that will accept your reusable cup.
There is still so much work still to be done to help our school community bring down its waste and footprint. We cannot do this without the help and support of student, their families, and our staff. Please play your part by putting your child’s future before your own convenience.
MGC students and teachers meet with the Department of Education to discuss the MGC and Modibodi period project findings
Paula and year 9 student Chloe McCormick speaking with Melanie McCleod and John O’Shaughnessy from the Child and Youth Health Unit at the Victorian Department of Education. This meeting relayed the findings of the joint project between MGC and Modibodi (period underwear company) to Department of Education. These people report directly to the Minister for Education, James Merlino. We love that James is very keen to hear about the work we’ve done throughout 2021 on this project. MGC will continue to advocate for the provision of reusable period products in Victorian Public Schools. The meeting was extremely positive with John and Melanie very interested in hearing about the impact of reusable period underwear on student learning and social connection.
If you are interested in the results of this anonymous student survey, please contact Paula.
Paula McIntosh.