Sustainability

Bring it in, Take it Home

Welcome to our new families at Newham PS. As you may know, we are a 5-star ResourceSmartschool. ResourceSmart Schools is "an award-winning Victorian Government program that assists schools to embed sustainability in everything they do."

As well as practising efficient energy and water consumption, and conservation of biodiversity, our focus this term is on waste reduction. At Newham PS we have a 'Bring it in, take it home' policy for lunch and snack packaging. This means that any single use packaging of foods students bring to school, will be returned home for families to recycle. 

The policy appears to have had a positive impact, as the packaging in student lunches has greatly reduced over the past year. Many students have no single use packaging in their lunch boxes. The amount of litter in our school yard and adjacent land is also far less and overall, the school produces less landfill each fortnight.

Here are some simple ideas for busy parents using Bento style lunch boxes.

Newham PS participating in MRSC Soft Plastics Recycling Pilot Program

Macedon Ranges Shire Council is running a shire-wide pilot program to recycle soft plastics. Households can obtain orange bags to place their soft plastics in, and once the bag is as full and tight as a basketball, it can be put into the yellow co-mingled recycling bin for collection.

Newham PS has registered to participate in the program by distributing orange bags from the school office. Families can pick up an orange bag, take it home and put their own soft plastics (including those returned from students' lunches) into the bags.

Please see Narelle at the office if you would like an orange bag or ask your child to collect one for you.

The following are guidelines for the program.