St Peter’s College in New Zealand carried out waste audits and discovered that plastic film wrap formed a significant waste item and was also a common littered item at school.
The environmental group aims to produce Beeswax wraps student use in the school to eliminate the need to use clingfilm wrap in school lunches. The immediate priority will be to distribute them to the Year 7 students and they will offer incentives in the form of house points each time the student uses the beeswax wrap in their lunchbox. The ultimate aim is to provide beeswax wraps and educate all students in the school about the sustainability of using the wraps.
The college will survey the grounds and property management team as to the reduction in the amount of clingfilm by students. Waste audits will be conducted before and after the programme to assess the decline in the use of clingfilm.
St Peter’s College have also implemented many projects with a focus on sustainability this year. They changed the school bin system and then implemented a program to inform the staff and students of how the new bin system worked. The school reduced waste to landfill by approx. 1.5 tonnes (Feb 2017 vs. Feb 2018)
Students produced a poster using the packaging and products sold by the school tuck shop to inform students as to the correct bin for each type of waste.
The school also began the Adopt-An-Area program where each house was given responsibility for a particular area of school in the effort to keep the school rubbish free.
At the School Fair, the students built waste stations to increase recycling and reduce the amount going into landfill.
Students have also begun a project with the school Edmund Rice group. A raised vegetable bed was installed and worm farms purchased using a grant from Auckland Council. The vegetables grown will be donated to the Auckland City Mission.
Lastly, the school introduced a Golden Ticket promotion: in an attempt to get students to actually notice litter “Golden Tickets” containing various prizes were hidden around the school at rubbish “hotspots”.
