Clean Up Australia Day:

Clean Up Australia inspires and empowers communities to clean up, fix up and conserve our environment.

What was started thirty years ago, by an "average Australian bloke" who had a simple idea to make a difference in his own backyard has now become the nation's largest community-based environmental event.

It is hard to believe that this initiative began as the inspiration of one man, Ian Kiernan. An avid sailor, Ian was shocked and disgusted by the pollution and rubbish that he continually encountered in the oceans of the world. Taking matters into his own hands, Ian organised a community event with the support of a committee of friends, including co-founder Kim McKay AO. It is hard to believe that this initiative began as the inspiration of one man, Ian Kiernan.

This simple idea ignited an enthusiasm and desire among the local community to get involved and make a difference. And surely if a capital city could be mobilised into action, then so could the whole nation! And so it was that Clean Up Australia Day was born in 1990.

This year, Buninyong Primary School will be dispersing around Buninyong to take part in this event and helping to tidy up our beautiful town on 28 February. We encourage students to bring in their own gardening gloves to pick up rubbish (there will be disposable gloves available to those who do not bring these). Any adult who would like to get involved with their child’s class is encouraged to speak to the class teacher to find out their location and time.

Introducing Sustainability at Buninyong Primary School

A big welcome to our Grade 6 Sustainability Leaders: Aiden T, Oscar W, Thomas W and Oliver R and our Grade 5 addition, Spencer S. The team have a big job ahead of them and we look forward to seeing the changes they start leading in our school.

If there are any other student (or adults) who would like to join the team, please feel free to get in touch with Claire Morris (morris.claire.l@edumail.vic.gov.au). We would love to have more students on board.

As mentioned previously, the team will be looking at seven areas within our school and working our way forward to making positive contributions in all areas. Our plan will be to focus on one area at a time, prioritised by the results from our Eco Baseline Survey. The areas you will be seeing in focus in coming terms include:

Biodiversity: Habitats and Homes
Energy: Super Smart Power
Fair Go: Global Citizens for Social Justice
Lifestyles: Healthy and Active
Litter and Waste: The Lifecycle of Stuff
Waste and Waterways: Developing our Next Generation of Waterway Keepers
Water: Think, Drink, Save the Sink

Recycling:

This is the first area that the Sustainability Team have decided to focus on in Term 1. Currently at the school we recycle:

Paper – Each classroom and office has a paper bin that is emptied weekly into our paper skip. We see a full skip at the end of each week. Well done and keep up the great work!!
Compost – Grade 3’s have done a wonderful job over the last few years to provide all classrooms with a food scraps container that they diligently collect and deliver to our chooks and worms. Again, this is a terrific system that is working well!

The next two areas we would like to focus on are:

3. Curb side recycling

The Ballarat City Council have heard about our initiation in sustainability and have given us their support in the form of three curb side yellow recycling bins to get our recycling program started in Term 1. We will now be calling on all classrooms to separate any curb side recyclables in their classroom/in the yard and deliver them to one of the three yellow recycling bins around the school. The Sustainability Team will be interested to see how much we are recycling vs putting into landfill.

4. Soft Plastics

As we know, curb side recycling does not include soft plastics, which makes up a large portion of our waste. Classrooms are being asked to also separate soft plastic waste (pretty much any plastic that can be scrunched) and deliver them to the maroon bin at the gym entrance. We will be looking for kind volunteers who could pop in to grab the soft plastics and take to a Redcycle drop off point (located at Coles and Woolworths). If you are interested in helping, please get in touch with Claire Morris (morris.claire.l@edumail.vic.gov.au)

We will be looking into alternative arrangements for our ongoing recycling from Term 2 on wards and will keep you posted with how we go.

The Sustainability Team will be looking further into recycling aluminium cans, oral waste, bread tags, bottle caps and batteries in the future. Please stay tuned.

For those wishing to make the most out of recycling in Ballarat, you can check out a few ideas on No Waste Ballarat

What’s Happening:

Dates:

N.B. School dates will not necessarily be held on the official day of the event due to weekend and other event clashes. Dates listed first are school dates.

28 February - Clean Up Australia Day (actually held on 1 March)

20 March – World Water Day (actually held on 22 March)

27 March - Earth Hour (actually held on 28 March)

21 April – Earth Day (actually held on 22 April)

5 June – World Environment Day

9-15 November – National Recycling Week

COMPETITION TIME!!!!

Design a Bin

We are looking for some budding designers (adults and children alike) to get busy and come up with some great ideas on how we might be able to store our waste both in the yard and in the classroom. Further details can be found on the Design A Bin Competition Form. Here is your chance to leave your positive mark on the school! The winning design will be created, presented at assembly and will display a plaque with the winner’s name.

Entries close on Friday, 13 March, 2020 at 3.30pm.

Get involved:

If you would like to join the Sustainability Team, please get in touch with Claire Morris (morris.claire.l@edumail.vic.gov.au)

Enter into our Design a Bin competition (small and big minds alike). Design a bin that will be used at both the Buninyong and Scotsburn Campus’. Click here to view more information and download the entry form (also available at the front office).

Weekly Tip: Weekly Tip: Find out where your local glass recycling point it and organise for your family to collect and drop off any glass waste (psssst – there’s one behind the BP in Buninyong).

Get Educated:

Check out this weekly material to learn more about recycling:

Sorting the Recycling Facts From the Garbage

Library

Book Club