Sustainability Update

Clean Up Club 2024

This term, we have decided to turn our attention to waste and litter.

Thank you to Brendan Nick who has got the ball rolling with the newly formed Clean Up Club. These Grade 3 students are volunteering to clean up the school for part of Wednesday lunchtimes.

They have made a mission statement:

We want to collect rubbish and make the school more sustainable. We want to persuade others to care about the environment so that we can make our lives better.

They have a motto:

Clean ground, clean heart. No matter your age, a little step can make a big difference.

They have made thoughtful comments. When asked, 'What happens if you drop just one piece of rubbish?', Penny from 3D responded, "People who don't know the effect on the environment might think, what difference does one piece make? A lot of people thought the same thing and now there’s a giant pile of litter!"

You can see from the photos what a difference these students are making already.

Stormwater Art

To raise awareness about the dangers of litter escaping down the stormwater drains or under the school fences into the street gutters, some members of Eco Club designed messages with chalk. They have since been washed away but you can see from the photograph that these children really do understand the consequences of littering. Stay tuned for more designs!

Waste Audit

Jade's Grade 4 class did an excellent job last Thursday with the annual waste audit. Jason from CERES (our ResourceSmart Schools coordinator) came and helped us analyse our waste and contamination. The waste audit wasn't about checking individual classes but rather about seeing overall trends of contamination.

Some of the common contaminants were:

Tissues and paper towels in the paper recycling bin (they can't be recycled because the fibres are too short but they can be composted).
Bioplastic cups in the yellow commingled bin (they look like regular plastic but can't be recycled. They have to go to landfill unfortunately because we don't have access to an industrial composting facility in Darebin).

There is no doubt that it is confusing but the students were very knowledgeable and showed real willingness to find solutions.

A Minimal Waste Event!

Mother's Day and Special Person’s Breakfast was a minimal waste event! Thanks Lori for coordinating the waste streams and to all the other parents for helping.

Eggshells and napkins went to the compost.
Milk bottles went to the yellow bin.
Tetrapak milk cartons went home to a Yarra resident's bin (Tetrapak can be recycled in Yarra but not Darebin at the moment).
The school's reusable coffee cups were washed and reused. (If you took a coffee cup home to finish your hot beverage, please return it to the school office. 😊)

There is no doubt that it takes more effort and planning than using disposables but it's definitely worth it.

The future for our children is reusables and they will remember that their school was doing it first and I know for a fact that Fairfield PS is having a positive influence on surrounding schools and their endeavours to create green events!

~ Amelia Trompf, FPS Sustainability Coordinator