Sixth Form
It’s Not Plastic-Fantastic! 20
by the Year 13 IB Environmental Systems and Societies (ESS) team: Lydia Caston, Aude Hillion, Giacomo Hurst, Maria Stapleton, Miranda Wyeth, Prachi Vaid and Rohan Dutt On Our World Day, 19 October 2012, Year 13’s ESS team was invited to Sodexo Headquarters to present to the regional managers. It all started following our presentation to the Senior School Leadership Team where we addressed some of the issues regarding waste generated by the school and how to reduce it, with a particular focus on plastics. As part of our research, we discovered some alarming statistics: more than twice as much waste per capita is generated in Singapore than England (1,330kg compared to 592kg), and that while plastics make up nearly 15% of waste generated, only 2% of it is recycled in Singapore (compared to 11% in the UK). We also noted that at every break and lunchtime huge quantities of disposable cups, plates and cutlery were being thrown away. We feared that perhaps we were not meeting one of the commitments outlined in the school’s Aims and Values:
privilege. After the presentation, we had an open discussion to agree how best to tackle the issue. Sodexo aims to reduce organic and non-organic waste at all of its clients’ sites globally by 2015. It has already started this at Tanglin where it now only uses Origo products (eco-friendly material made from corn that is 100% biodegradable). This is fantastic but, as a school, we still need to work harder on the issue of the uncountable plastic cups, bottles, plastic lids and wrapping generated every day. Miss Hunt (our ESS
teacher) is also supporting our mission, encouraging all teachers to use their own mugs to reduce the waste generated from the staff café - just a start! We feel positive - we are currently working with the Year 7 TaGG group to re-label some bins that can be nominated for plastics recycling so that there are more around school and Sodexo is continuing to work with us to address the waste issue. We are happy that we are starting to fulfil our promise to ‘act ethically and according to the principles of social and environmental responsibility’.
‘Tanglin seeks to act ethically and according to the principles of social and environmental responsibility.’ We realised that attempting to change things on a national scale would be rather ambitious, so we set out to find ways to make changes on a local, i.e. Tanglin Trust School scale. Fortunately for us, Jonno Johnstone, Food Services Manager, had invited Ms Ying Wen Lee, Sodexo’s Marketing Manager, to our presentation and, suitably impressed by what we were trying to achieve, she referred us to the Sodexo Headquarters. On the day of the presentation, Mr Derby-Crook, Tanglin CEO, escorted our team to the Sodexo Headquarters where the Managing Director greeted us. We delivered our presentation, working through a few technical issues and overcoming our nerves. Having senior members of such a large organisation hanging on our every word was a
The Voice Magazine_vol13.indd 20
Remember the 5 Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
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