PSCCD Waste Smart Kindy

Prior Street Child Care & Development

Prior Street Child Care and Development were recently recognised by the Brisbane City Council as their 21st Waste Smart Kindy. In a ceremony at City Hall on Thursday 17 November, we won the Early Learning Centre category in the 2022 WasteSMART Brisbane Awards.

Here are justafew of our current embedded practices:

• A community Recycling Station.

• A recycling bin system in every room of the centre.

• Kitchen waste is redirected to 5 compost bins and worm farm.

• We have bush tucker, fruit and vegetable and herbs gardens – with produce used in our kitchen or shared with families. Gardens support our native bees; while harvested seeds are recycled and shared.

• We have established an orchard with mulberries, oranges, limes, lemons. The children (and wider community!) eat fruit directly off the trees.

• We collect items for recycling through external organisations including batteries/pens/coffee pods/cans

• Our centre wide Bush Kindy program complements our commitment to caring for Country.

• Education and awareness is a key message in our programs. We participate in Planet Ark’s Recycling events and National Recycling week. We use donations from our recycling station; access Reverse Garbage for materials; and engage shows such as Recycle Man.

• All members of our team have completed professional development in recycling, composting, worm farms, reducing food waste, and managing waste.

• We are proud to have been finalists in the 2020, and winners in the 2022, Brisbane City Council WasteSmart Awards. Our initiatives and commitment to sustainability was acknowledged in the Planet Ark School Recycling Right Competition.

We love to promote our waste smart messages and journey via various social media platforms. Instagram @prior_street_child_care and Facebook www.priorstreetchildcare.com.au

We have 4 compost bins, plus a worm farm and native bees. These 3 bins are located in our orchard.

Food is gathered off the fruit trees in the orchard – our babies love mulberries straight off the tree.

We have several gardens across the three outside play areas – bush tucker, fruit, herb, and floral for the native bees. We’ve also grown mushrooms and potatoes.

We use produce from the gardens in the kitchen, plus any excess is shared across the centre community, while seeds are harvested and recycled.