One Week of Collections Shows Need for Change

Hi Colac! I am Emma Cooke and I am a year 9 student at Trinity College Colac.

For one of our subjects at school - PBL (project-based learning) we have had to create a project around sustainability.

For many weeks we complete a rotation of different topics kindly taught by our teachers. These topics consisted of: water, waste, food insecurity, sustainable housing and climate change. After learning about these topics, we have to create a project to conduct an action and spread awareness.

When I was thinking of a project idea my mind straight away went to waste. I have chosen to focus on waste in our local community streets. On my daily walks to and from school I often see pieces of rubbish floating around in the streets. I try to pick it up if there is a bin near, but to be honest I don’t always.

So, I thought that is exactly what I will do! For the past week I have been walking to and from school and collecting any rubbish I see. This picture shows the amount of rubbish I have collected altogether. So, please look at the picture and imagine if I collected rubbish every day for a month, then a year and so on, my whole shed would be full of rubbish!

And this is only from me walking to and from school, so imagine what the rest of Colac would be like. This is why I am spreading awareness urging people to put their rubbish in the bins that are provided around Colac or hold onto it until you get home and put it in the right bin.

Put you cardboard, paper cups, paper straws, soft plastics, cans, recyclable plastics etc in the recycle; your hard plastics , plastic straws in your general bin; your glass bottles in the glass bin and your food in the green bin please.

We are killing our environment and the animals in it with the rubbish we are letting lie in the streets and we need to act before it is too late.

One average garbage truck load of rubbish is getting dumped into the ocean every minute, which means 17 billion tonnes a year. There will soon be more rubbish in the ocean than marine life!

Our rubbish in the streets is going into the waterways and hurting animals, and on land it is choking them and they are eating it which is killing them. It is breaking down on land and releasing methane, which is toxic for our air and for us to breathe.

If you see why you need to start putting rubbish in the bins please do it. Thank you for taking the time to read this and please share it to spread awareness within our community.

Emma Cooke, Year 9