Sustainability

Sustainability Excursion- Leaders

On Tuesday, 24 April, the Trinity Catholic School Sustainability Leaders, together with Mrs Mandarano and Mrs Cappozzo travelled to the Yarra Council Recycling Drop-off Point in Roseneath Street, Clifton Hill.  We were met by Kirsty Richards who is the Waste Education Officer for the City of Yarra.  The first thing we had to do was put on our safety vests.

We visited the Yarra Council Recycling Drop-off Point because we wanted to get a better idea about what happens to our waste in Yarra Council and to learn how everyone can do a better job of recycling.

The first thing we had to do was put on our safety vests. This is a very busy Recycling Depot and quite a noisy one, too.  People were arriving in  their cars dropping of cardboard, polystyrene and an assortment of other surplus materials.  We found that this Drop-off Point accepts all sorts of things like, plastics, light globes, batteries, computers, phones, books, paint, just to mention a few.  We learned that old xrays are collected here, too.  The white image in the xray is composed of silver which can be extracted from the xray and used to make, for example, jewellery.

We were lucky to see a large truck which was depositing the items left on footpaths for collection.  We saw all the metal objects being separated from the rest of the waste.  Metal of all sorts then goes off to another place to be recycled. We also learned that people often throw clothes in their recycling bins which is not a good idea because fabrics and soft plastics get caught in the machinery used to separate the wastes for different uses.  This slows down the workers who have to untangle the mess.  This is a big nuisance for them.

We were really grateful to have visited here and to get a better idea for ourselves.  In the coming weeks we hope to share what we have learned at Assembly with the other students so we can all do a better job to keep ourselves, our creatures and our world a healthier place.

The Sustainability Team