Make less waste in your school

Schools generate large quantities of waste, in particular lots of paper, and with the introduction of the free fruit scheme lots of compostable waste too. This provides a great opportunity for your school to demonstrate good practice to pupils as a matter of daily routine.

This page is intended to outline lots of ideas for strategies for improving your school's waste management.

In waste education we generally think in terms of the three R's: reduce, re-use, recycle, where reducing our use of resources in the first place is better than re-using, and re-using things is better than recycling them. Thinking in these terms may help you to identify potential room for improvement in your school: while switching to recycling is certainly a good step, making less waste in the first place is definitely much better.

Reduce

Wastewatch, a national waste charity, conducted research into waste generated by education institutions and found out that there was a massive variance in the amount of waste generated by schools. This means that the culture of resource use in schools must be very different, and would suggest that the very first thing to tackle in the school is the culture in schools towards reducing their waste by reducing their use of resources, often through clever re-use of things.

Remember: If you are making lots of waste you must be buying lots of things. Reducing waste means reducing consumption which means reduced spending too - hooray!

• Conduct a waste audit

How much waste does your school produce? What kind of wastes do you make? Could you reduce any of these?
Helping a class to conduct a school waste audit makes a great starting point for looking more closely at waste issues in your school. It links well to science, numeracy and citizenship and gives a class a chance to do some genuine investigative research. Does anyone in the class have any ideas how they could reduce the school's waste? Could they organise it?  Sort-It can help to run an audit of your schools waste that can then be used as a baseline for reducing your schools waste.

• Run a waste free lunch event

Children who bring in packed lunches often import lots of waste to school: bottles, packets, pots, plastic bags… Is it possible to bring in a waste free lunch? What would it be like? Would it be healthy? Would it be expensive? Would anyone want to eat it?
You could challenge the school to see which class could bring in the least waste in their packed lunch.
The problem with running waste free lunch in school is that children who have school dinners are excluded since they have no control over what they are given. Children normally take packed lunches on school trips however so this can be a good chance to run the event.

• Does every class have a box for paper used on one side only? This can be used for scrap paper and is suitable for most writing or drawing. If paper is in good condition then old worksheets can be collected and re photocopied on the other side. If there is a problem with pupils being confused as to which side of the worksheet they are supposed to be working on then swap piles with other year group teachers where the pupils are less likely to be confused.
• If your school has any disposable cup machines such as water coolers then stop getting new cups for it and replace with re-usable ones.

Re-use

• Organise a uniform swap

It makes sense to provide an opportunity for parents to swap uniforms when children grow so fast and it helps parents to save money.

• Organise a jumble sale

Jumble sales are a really great way to help children see re-use of things in practice: it’s fun, it’s cheap and it could raise money for your school. Stuff you don’t sell could go to the charity shop.

• Bag2School

Bag2school collect unwanted clothes, shoes, handbags, bedding and curtains from school and pay for them by weight (20p per kilo at the moment). They provide plastic bags for children to fill up and leaflets explaining the scheme for parents. The bags can be picked up by the company at the end of the collection day which avoids problems with storage.
Contact: 0870 242 1212 (local phone rate), website: www.bag2school.com

• Buy art materials from Re>Play

Re>Play get waste materials from industry and then sell them on to schools and playschemes for very low prices: ideal for art classes, costumes or props for plays, and much more. They also sell some new art and craft products and rent out play equipment. Re>Play are part of Leeds Play Network and are based in Belle Isle.
Contact 0113 271 0715
replay@leedsplaynetwork.org.uk

Recycle

• Begin recycling in school

Explaining to children why they should recycle is important, but incorporating it into their daily lives at school is a great way to create habits which will last a lifetime.
Most waste contractors offer recycling schemes for paper and as landfill tax increases it is becoming more financially appealing all the time. Setting up the recycling scheme would make a great citizenship project for children.

The scheme that we recommend is run by a company local to Leeds called Associated Waste Management, 'AWM'.  The pricing schedule is by lift and rental charges on all containers, with a tonnage charge only for waste destined for landfill.

 Additionally a rebate will be payable to school on the materials segregated for recycling.  Be aware though, for the first time the contractor will be able to charge a significant decontamination charge against those badly contaminating their recycling containers with non-recyclables. 

 For further information Leeds schools should contact Sam.Grimwood@Leeds.gov.uk or phillip.robson@educationleeds.co.uk

 

• Start composting!

Schools produce lots of organic waste, especially since the free fruit and veg scheme came in, but it costs a lot to dispose of organic waste as it is heavy. Sending organic waste to landfill is bad for the environment because it rots to produce methane, a greenhouse gas 27 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. If it is composted it can be used to make great soil which you can use to grow very nice vegetables.
Many schools are using the compost bin as the start of a gardening club: what better way is there to teach about soil, micro-organisms, plants and healthy eating.

 Sort-It are currently helping schools to set up their own compost bins and can help to provide free compost bins, so please get in touch!

We also strongly recommend the Little Rotters website where you can download a free education pack about how to set up your own composting club at school.

Tell everyone about what you have done

• Run a poster campaign

Design posters to be put up in local shops, post offices, community centres etc. to spread the message about recycling: a real world project.

• Buy recycled

Buying recycled products is important for encouraging companies to collect recyclables. You don’t need to buy everything recycled, just a few reams of paper or packs of pencils are better than nothing.

• Eco-Schools

This is an award which your school can work towards which provides a framework for your school to become more sustainable.
To quote from the website “The scheme is rooted in a genuine desire to help children become more effective citizens by encouraging them to take responsibility for the future of their own environment. It is not about environmental excellence, it is about your school starting to look at how it impacts upon the environment and how this is decided upon and can be managed.”

Visit www.eco-schools.org.uk for more information.


In the school office

There are lots of waste saving ideas for offices:

• Re-use envelopes: stick a label over the old address and tape up the old opening.

• Use paper on both sides (some secretaries make notebooks out of paper used on one side).

• Collect paper printed on one side to be used for printing internal documents like emails, draft copies, agendas or minutes.

• Tell people about email messages or give them a small slip reminding them to check on the computer rather than printing whole messages out.

• Make notebooks out of old paper stapled together.

• A company called Office Green recycles things like printer cartridges, old mobile phones, IT hardware, confidential waste, office equipment, drinks cans, fluorescent light tubes and batteries.