Principal's Report
It was frustrating yesterday to hear the news of REDcycle no longer being able to help us deal with our overuse of soft plastic packaging (via Coles and Woolworths drop offs). While it is hoped that this is only a temporary pause, even a temporary pause is disastrous for our environment. While REDcycle had been in operation since 2011, it states that the increase in consumer recycling in recent years has grown 350 percent. While this is hopefully due to more awareness and action in recycling soft plastics, it likely also represents our high use/dependance of soft plastics.
The problem possibly lies in our use of these plastics, not the fact that the recycling process has ceased.
For the past year Windsor Primary School has made a conscientious effort to minimise the amount of soft plastics going into landfill – we have collection bags in each classroom, a collection bin in the main corridor and recently joined in with a bread bag return promotion. Whenever we emptied the outdoor bins of soft plastics, Stonnington Council approved recyclables and organics, we could leave the remaining ‘rubbish’ in the bin for weeks before needing to empty it.
We also know the long term environmental problem plastics have and this is a problem that this adult generation is going to unfortunately dump on our kids to solve. An experiment at the school over ten years ago had left plastics in the ground and when these were dug up recently the plastics were still in their original condition. Our plastic rubbish is going nowhere.
So while there is a pause on soft plastic collections, the only way for the school to minimise its impact on the environment is to ask families to not purchase food for school that is packaged in soft plastic or to at least buy in bulk and not the ‘mini packs’ that have the food in plastic packaging inside more plastic packaging.
Fingers crossed the short term and the long term problems is are addressed soon.