Sustainability

We commenced by investigating what was being sending to landfill.

Starting with our classroom bin, we found that there was a large amount of food scraps and paper which could be recycled or composted! We then decided to look into the playground bins with the help of some P & C members.

We’re trying to reduce our waste so we decided to measure how much we produce We tipped out the bins and separated it into categories. There was a lot of plastic and full packets of things including yoghurts and lunch orders.

-Maya

There was a lot of bread wrapped in plastic when you could easily have it in a separate container that you could reuse. It was good to see what we’re throwing out and try and become more sustainable.

 - Amira

Our class was shocked by the amount of waste we found after just one day.

Looking into just three bins on ONE day we found:

• 165 soft plastics
• 175 items of food waste
• 156 items that would go straight to landfill
• 83 pieces of paper that could be recycled
• 53 items of co-mixed recycling - some of which we could send to a container deposit scheme for 10c each.

Our next mission is to have a good think and generate some ideas on how to reduce this waste.

 Why not do a bin audit at home to see just how much your family might be sending to landfill.

Some things we do at home:

“At home, I help my mum sort the bins to make sure the plastics and glass goes in the right bin. We also have a compost bin that we put our food scraps in including fruit and vegetable peels. After a while, this decomposes into new soil that helps our garden.”

-       Adam

“At home, we collect our cans and bottles and return them to the depot and get 10c. Once we got $10 -  that’s 100 pieces! At school, my lunch is wrapped in a paper towel instead of plastic.”

-       Noam

Christine Lucas

Classroom Teacher

Sustainability Committee

Composting at Truscott Street Public School

Last week we started our composting program at Truscott Street as a way to address food waste.

Each class has received a small collection bin to put their fruit and vegetable scraps in from crunch and sip. This small bin is then emptied into a bucket which a couple of year 6 students empty into the big compost bins in the garden.

We plan to include a collection at lunch time by the end of the term.

Thank you to our P & C committee who have assisted us with our bin audits. A big thank you to Kirsty who has painted all of our collection bins and Tamar who has provided some composting guidance.

In our compost we put fruit peels and apple cores. It’s In our bin audit we saw whole apples!

- Romi, stage 2

Composting means we stop putting things into the bin. It’s a good way for everyone be involved.

- Shyamala, stage 2

Maya, year 4 placing fruit scraps into the class compost collection bin.

Sofia and Caleb, KS placing their class compost into a larger collection bin.

Do you compost at home? It’s a great way to reduce food waste and nourish your garden!

Christine Lucas

Classroom Teacher

Sustainability Committee

Our Food is Going Nude!

Every Monday, students from Truscott Street Public School are encouraged to bring food that is contains no to very little throwing away packaging.

We have been thrilled with the response so far and very pleased to see some students continuing to bring Nude Food all throughout the week.

This term, we have started to separate any cans, poppers and bottles that can be recycled through the Return and Earn litter reduction initiative.

The Return and Earn container deposit scheme is a NSW Government initiative funded by contributions from the beverage industry. It offers a 10c refund to consumers for depositing eligible drink containers at return points across NSW.

Since launching on 1 December 2017, the scheme has collected over 4 billion containers through its 600+ return points and has helped reduce the volume of eligible drink container litter across the state.

From our canteen alone, we estimate we will be getting about 100 items a week!

Funds raised through depositing the containers will go towards support other sustainability focused projects in our school.

Year 6 students Lachlan and Angus are helping collect our eligible containers.

Christine Lucas

Classroom Teacher

Sustainability Committee