When our new school was built we were required to meet a 5 Star, Green Star Rating Education Build. To achieve this we needed to minimise the impact we were going to make on the environment and demonstrate programmes that over time reduce our impact. This is why we have the stone gardens gathering 50% of the rainwater that falls on roofs, to filter it back into the ground down to the aquifers, with the other 50% retained in the tanks for flushing toilets. Ground water goes into swales to slow its transfer into the city drains. The design also needed to minimise direct sunlight, hence the extended eaves. Part of the compliance was to move towards having zero waste. Our first step was not having playground bins and having children take all food and wrap waste home. At present we are battling with litter dropped from pre packed snacks and food wrapping. We wish to completely eliminate this and therefore urge you to give consideration to sending litterless lunches. Some learning teams are offering stickers and rewards in an attempt to encourage change. Rather than having a Board policy of wrap free lunches, we would prefer to arrive at that position because we all want to do more to help the environment. Check out the thinking from the Sustainability Trust.

Ka pai hoki koutou if you are cutting down on your consumption of single-use plastics well done, but our global waste problem continues to escalate. Keep up your efforts to reduce waste and make the move towards living a ‘zero waste’ life. If you need convincing that we as humans really do need to change our habits check this TV Doco out. A good watch with your children.

Take up the zero waste challenge! While being completely zero waste might be daunting, it’s actually easy to drastically reduce your waste (even if you don’t want to go completely zero). The key is to make the most of the plentiful resources all around us. Often our lives are geared towards wastefulness because we are not set-up with the items necessary to avoid waste and buy for convenience.