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The Weekend Sun
New bins to clean-up school’s recycling habits There’s a place for aluminium cans at Otumoetai College and it’s not on the ground. It’s down the middle of one of their purpose-built, stainless steel recycling bins designed to hold beverage containers, which are being installed this week. Seven clean, green students, who hope to improve their school’s recycling habits, won the bins in a competition created by Tauranga-based Environmental Education for Resource Sustainability Trust in July.
College teacher Desirree Brennan says the recycling bins have arrived and they’re installing them at different locations on school grounds this week. “We have gained a couple of new members to our environmental committee and the group is working on a proposal for the principal to reinstate the committee and address the school about the new bins.” The school’s environmental committee won the competition after proving to EERST that they were showing initiative to reduce waste. Otumoetai College Year 11 student Grace Choi says the school is committed to waste
EERST program manager Hope Lawsen and administrator Satsuki Takeuouchi helping secondary schools improve recycling rates. minimisation, with daily recycling initiatives in place. The beverage containers will be paid for by the annual Keep NZ Beautiful Beverage Container Recycling Community Grants Programme, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation.
Cheating the landfills: Think before your throw One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure. Inorganic collections are testimony to that – stick what you believe to be trash on the roadside for disposal and it’s immediately snaffled up by someone who finds value in it. Now you don’t have to go as far as the street. You can go online. It’s called The Waste Exchange
and it is keeping stuff out of landfills. It’s about finding an alternative by connecting people who have unwanted materials with organisations and other people who are able to re-use that stuff. The Waste Exchange gives everyone else access to free, reusable materials and access to information about local recyclers and regional
recycling services. You are doing your bit to reduce rubbish going to landfills and can make it new. The goal of the website is to conserve energy and our valuable finite resources little bit by little bit. It also creates a better understanding about using and re-using. Visit www.nothrow.co.nz for more information.
Friday 14 August 2015