Last week, Year 4 took on a mission to uncover just how much waste our school produces in a single day—and what we can do to reduce it. The students conducted a thorough bin audit, examining the contents of rubbish bins across all classes. The goal? To find out what we're throwing away, identify items that could be recycled or composted, and ultimately reduce our school's environmental footprint.
What We Discovered
The audit revealed some surprising findings. A significant amount of waste could actually be recycled, but it’s ending up in the general waste bins instead. Items like paper, plastic containers, and even some food packaging were frequently tossed out without a second thought. We also found that a large portion of the waste consisted of food scraps, which could easily be composted rather than sent to landfill.
In total, the 18 classes in the Junior School threw out a grand total of 6514 items of rubbish on Tuesday between 8:30am and 1:10pm. That is just over 4 and a half hours. If this was the same during the 185 days or so we spend at school each year, the total could be somewhere around 1 200 000 items of garbage. This is just for our school. Could you possibly imagine if every primary school and high school in Australia completed the same exercise that we did?
Taking Action for a Greener Future
Armed with this information, Year 4 is ready to make a difference. We believe that with better recycling options and the introduction of composting facilities, our school can significantly cut down on waste. That's why we're planning to petition the school to provide more recycling bins in each classroom, along with composting bins for food waste.
Our grade is excited to present these findings and suggestions to the school leadership. We believe that by working together, we can create a cleaner, greener school environment.
Stay tuned for updates on our proposal, and let's all do our part to reduce, reuse, and recycle!