Whole School

Uniform Shop 

The Uniform Shop will be closing at 2.00pm, Wednesday 30 June.

From the Environment Prefect 

From introducing paper bins into the Senior School classrooms to performing a school waste audit, I am glad to announce that much progress in the right direction has been made toward our sustainability goals this term. While we have made progress, it is important that we acknowledge that there is still a lot more to achieve in this regard as was highlighted by the recent waste audit.

Waste Audit

At the end of last week, Brad Waldron, a local recycling hero from Cleanaway, was invited to school to help students perform this audit, resulting in over three quarters of the school’s daily waste production being sorted. To sort the rubbish, we first dumped it on a tarp at the front of the Gym, where the Junior School Green Team then sorted and organised it into carefully labelled buckets. When these buckets became full, they were weighed, and the mass of rubbish was recorded. This audit showed that around fifty percent of our daily rubbish production is food scraps (at 20kg), with the next largest category being non-recyclables like plastic bags and clingwrap, at thirty percent. 

To reduce the amount of rubbish going direct to landfill, especially food scraps, I encourage students to bring home their food organics waste, as it can be correctly placed into the new FOGO system being provided by the City of Albany. This way, food waste can be properly recycled into compost and mulch for fertilising your garden. Non-recyclables such as zip-lock bags, cling/glad wrap and snack wrappers should also be avoided in students’ lunchboxes, being replaced with sustainable and reusable alternatives such as wax wraps and hard plastic Tupperware containers. 

Plastic Free July

Coming up soon is the annual Plastic Free July challenge, where the goal of the month is simply to not produce any non-recyclable plastic, including plastic bags, clingwrap and snack wrappers. I encourage families to take on the challenge and decrease their usage of single use plastics for the month, more information can be found on their website, including tips and guides: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/

Paper Recycling Bins

We also saw quite a large amount of paper and paper products in the waste audit. To properly recycle this paper, back in Week 8, the student Environmental Committee introduced paper recycling trays into the Senior School classrooms. These bins allow students and teachers to easily recycle paper rather than throwing it into the general waste bin and is a step in the right direction.  

Containers for Change Artwork

As announced earlier in the year, we received two bins that were kindly donated for use in the Containers for Change program set up by the West Australian government. Next term, these bins will be positioned on a foundation near the far corner of the Multi-Purpose Sport Complex, allowing for Containers for Change items to be recycled effortlessly by parents and students. The bins will display artwork created by the VACS Containers for Change Artwork team, which will be designed next term and the winning artwork presented at the Kingfisher Fair.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Brad Waldron for taking the time to guide the students during the waste audit, his expertise is very much valued. I would also like to thank Mrs Berryman for organising and planning the audit and the Senior School Environmental Committee and Junior School Green Team for sorting and helping with sustainability endeavours around the school.

Kelvin Hands | Environment Prefect