Promoting better waste management in schools
Here at Solo Resource Recovery, we constantly promote more sustainable ways to manage waste. A great place to teach such habits is at school, to young students, in order to build lifelong habits that will help them create positive changes in their waste management. Here are some fun ways to promote waste management inside and outside the classroom!
Create fun and creative tasks or projects about waste management
Create class projects and activities about waste management, since it’ll get kids to be more hands on as opposed to simply delivering information to them! It’s a great way to increase young students’ awareness of the issues surrounding waste today.
We all know that putting into perspective the sheer amount of waste that we generate as a nation is near impossible, so the goal here is to give students a much more tangible way to understand waste management. This can be done in heaps of different ways too, so be creative with it!
Perhaps students can analyse how waste is currently being managed, measure how much waste is generated on a daily basis by the school or classroom, and propose ways to reduce the waste and other improvements. This will also be sure to introduce students to many waste management practices that they haven’t heard of before, so you could have them put some of these habits in place at home and in school, and report their progress! The key is to set these types of small challenges that’ll get them keen to get started.
Create regular activities that incorporate waste management into their routines
Like all of us, kids learn with repetition, so habits that they form at a young age can stay with them throughout their entire lives. Creating small activities for them every day to build these habits can go a long way. This could simply mean having a daily classroom clean up at the end of each day, or picking up rubbish from the yards for the last few minutes of recess and lunch breaks.
Make sure that these tasks are simple enough that students will actually do them! This means having easy access to rubbish bins, and clearly labelling them with what should and shouldn’t go in each type of bin.
Encourage regular no waste lunches
A huge portion of the waste generated at schools is from the packaged food brought in my students. Creating designated days for kids to have absolutely no waste in their lunches and snacks will have heaps of positive effects. Not only will you see a huge reduction in zip-lock bags, plastic food packaging and plastic water bottles, but you’ll also be introducing them to alternative foods that they can enjoy while creating zero waste. Most times, these alternatives are also healthier, so it really is a win-win!
Start a compost bin
A compost bin will perfectly complement the no-waste lunches that students bring in. What better way to make the most of all our biodegradable food waste than creating a communal compost bin! Make this an ongoing activity by having students even add the finished compost to the school’s garden areas or veggie patch!
To learn more about what Solo Resource Recovery do for sustainable waste management, contact our team at 1300 46 76 or via our website.
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