WA S T E M I N I M I S AT I O N F O R A U C K L A N D S C H O O L S - S U M M E R 2 0 1 3
Cool Composting
Tena koutou, Welcome to the first 2013 WasteWise News edition! We hope you have been enjoying the beautiful summer. This edition brings you inspiring ideas you could do in your own school, a spotlight on plastic bags with plenty of facts for the classroom and some information on visiting our waste minimisation learning hubs. Have a read of the ‘trash to fashion’ article from last year’s event, and start thinking of getting involved this year! Plus, see how a preschool has done their own fashion show and learn about a cool activity we can do with your
The Auckland Botanic Gardens are looking bright and colourful with their fantastic signage around the kitchen garden, an extension to the Potter Children’s Garden. We particularly love the three rotating compost signs. Clear, effective, and what a great project for schools! The staff here are awesome for re-using materials and have a variety of creative plant pots. The gardens provide an effective learning space for students and there is plenty to inspire anyone to do things back at their own school. Great stuff! If you would like to participate in the education programmes at Auckland Botanic Gardens, check out the Learning Through Experience 2013-14 catalogue sent to all schools in January, or contact: Auckland Botanic Gardens Phone: 09 267 1457 ext 209, Email: botanicgardens.schoolbookings@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz or visit: aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/educationforsustainability
class – Sorted on Waste. Remember to tell us about any great WasteWise stories so we can share them with all Auckland schools. Email us at: wastewise@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz We hope you have a great start to the year! Na¯ku noa na, The Waste Minimisation Team, Auckland Council.
We’re online!
reducing our footprint
You can find an electronic copy of WasteWise News online. Just search ‘WasteWise schools’ on the Auckland Council website. www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
Introducing Sacha Bradley – our new WasteWise facilitator
Another way to recycle trash!
Sacha joined our WasteWise team last year and is working in many schools in central and south Auckland. She has worked in a variety of schools in Auckland with different ages.
The iconic Trash to Fashion Awards is calling for interest from schools across Auckland. The project is open to all primary, intermediate and secondary school students.
Alongside her WasteWise work, she also teaches part time in a junior classroom. Sacha is passionate about getting waste systems working efficiently and encouraging others to give it a go! When Sacha is not working, her own young children keep her busy.
The event aims to teach students that creativity and innovation can help reduce waste to landfill. Last year more than 420 fashion and wearable art pieces were entered into the competition, with 120 being selected for the finals.
We have five fabulous facilitators providing free services to schools across the Auckland region. If you would like a facilitator to visit your school, email: wastewise@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
WasteWise Schools Online Survey Thank you to all WasteWise schools who participated in the online survey at the end of 2012. We greatly appreciate your time and honesty in this survey, and value all of the feedback we received. This is important information to us to further improve and develop our waste minimisation programmes, and we loved reading how many of you have benefited from being on the programme. Keep up the great work!
Funding opportunity The Waste Minimisation and Innovation Fund (WMIF) is available from 1 April to support innovative waste reduction projects, and help achieve the goals of Auckland Council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan. The fund is available to schools, community groups, businesses and iwi/Maori organisations. Applications for the first round of funding will close on 30 April 2013. A second round will open in October. For more information about the fund, visit: www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/funding and select the ‘Environmental and Heritage’ link, or email aucklandwastefund@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz
Two of the winning garments were from students of Selwyn College. Selwyn also received the School Prize package worth $3,500 in recognition for their planning towards waste reduction and sustainability on school grounds. This year, students will be inspired by the theme “celebrate individuality” and garments must be completed by the end of June for judging. The finalist shows will be held at Corban Estate Arts Centre on 24 and 25 August. Teacher and Designer handbooks are available on request. For more information contact Leanne Roche, Auckland Council on 301 0101 or email leanne@st2f.co.nz
Junk to wearable art: XL Pre-School
Plastic Bags- a huge waste issue!
5.30 pm on a warm, spring evening - the scene is set. The raffles are bought, nibbles enjoyed, parents, grand-parents, aunts and uncles line the red carpet walk way.
Use these facts in your daily notices, school newsletters, or as part of your teaching programme, to raise awareness about the adverse environmental effects using plastic bags can have.
The first toddler parades down the catwalk in a recycled waist jacket with a star shape formed from sewn on buttons. Every child at the pre-school has been involved in using recycled materials to design a creation for this evening. What an amazing variety of outfits we saw! Everything from Thomas The Tank Engine to caterpillars, crocodiles, belly dancers, robots and superman! The models strutted their stuff with enthusiasm, excitement, tears, panic, and smiles, responding to encouragement from the audience. What a delight watching tissue and shoeboxes turned into shoes, hoola-hoop dresses, chip packet skirts, cardboard vehicles, and plastic bags turned into wearable art. Audience participation was high and all too soon we were asked to put our vote for the best outfit into the bucket. How can you vote when everyone paraded a gorgeous one-off outfit with such finesse? An amazing fashion parade where under fives are showing us how much they care for the environment in a very special and creative way.
• Each year, between 500 billion and one trillion plastic bags are used globally. • In New Zealand, we are using over 22 million plastic bags per week. That’s around 300 bags per person, per year! • Approximately 80% of plastic litter found in oceans comes from the land. • The British Antarctic Survey have found plastic bags floating far north of the Arctic Circle, and as far south as the Falkland Islands. • It has been estimated that plastic bags kill up to one million sea creatures every year. • 4000 plastic bags were picked up each year on Auckland’s North Shore beaches in 2011 and 2012, and taken to landfill. What can we do to help? • When you are out shopping, ask yourself - do I really need a plastic bag? • Find out if your local supermarket collects plastic bags for re-use. • Take your own bags or use reusable cloth bags for shopping. If we use a cloth bag, we can save up to six plastic bags a week. That is 24 plastic bags a month!
Shelley Hackett on Sorted on Waste On the 25th October last year, I had the opportunity to share our new WasteWise ‘Sorted on Waste’ activity with a great bunch of preschoolers at the Life Childcare Centre in Snells Beach. This is a small preschool that actively encourages their children and staff to reduce, reuse and recycle. They have a worm farm for their organic scraps and a lovely vegetable garden. They also reuse and recycle all their paper and cardboard. The aim of the Sorted on Waste activity is to get kids involved with sorting waste, and learning where it can go besides the landfill. This super game involves all of the children and has images of different types of waste, which are suitable to use with all ages.
The children shared their thoughts on where waste goes: “the landfill!” most said. However, by the end of our game the children were helping each other with their waste images. They showed each other that their fruit and vegetable scraps could go in their very own worm farm and that there were many things that could be reused or recycled. Our landfill column ended up with very little under it. Success! This is a fabulous way to get children and teachers thinking about where waste goes and is a great introductory activity to use before doing a waste audit in your school. Let us know if you would like a facilitator to run this activity with your class!
WasteWise School Cluster meetings 2012 In November 2012 three different WasteWise schools hosted teachers from other schools to check out their progress and success as a WasteWise school. Many teachers were inspired by ideas and conversations with other WasteWise teachers, and were eager to get back to their own schools to try new and interesting ways to spread the WasteWise message. We would like to give a huge thank you to the following schools for allowing us to come and check out their amazing work! -
Manurewa East School Balmoral School Rosebank School
Waste Minimisation Learning Hubs Planning a unit on waste and need a trip out of the classroom? Remember to visit our awesome free learning hubs: Auckland Council Learning Centre (Henderson): Sessions run on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings and include a tour of the transfer station. We take all ages – including preschool and secondary! To enquire contact: wastewise@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz Visy Recycling Education Centre (Onehunga): Sessions run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays – schools and community groups can see recycling first hand. To enquire contact: meredith.graham@visy.co.nz Transpacific Industries Learning Centre
Cluster meetings are a great opportunity to meet with other WasteWise School teachers, share and celebrate successes, view another school’s waste minimisation systems and have a great afternoon. We look forward to visiting more WasteWise Schools later on this year – watch out for your invitation.
(Ostend, Waiheke): Flexible session times. All preschool, school and community groups encouraged to attend an interactive session, these can be streamlined and made FUN! To enquire contact: gandrewneal@transpac.co.nz
Green calendar: Use these months to incorporate waste into your teaching!
July - Re-use month http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/explore/reduce www.sciencekids.co.nz/lessonplans/earth/recycling.html
September - Conservation Month www.doc.govt.nz www.kcc.org.nz Shelly November - Reduce Month www.recyclezone.org.uk
For any of the free resources or services listed in this newsletter or for more information please contact us at wastewise@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz