I. Welcome Earthlings
II. Acknowledging Climate Change
A. Scientific Consensus
1. Causes
2. Effects
III. Sustainable Solutions
A. Mindful Stewardship
B. The 5 R’s
IV. Zero-Waste Program
A. Segregation & Resource Care Systems
B. AWS Resource Care Facility
C. How to Segregate
1. Segregation Classification List
2. Printable Sorting Labels
D. Drop Off Schedule
Acacia Waldorf School has a longstanding tradition of community service and anthroposophical views of the natural world. In this light, our community is committed to environmental stewardship in our planning, practice, and educational direction. Within the context of our overall mission, AWS seeks to encourage environmental awareness and responsibility in the daily life of the school as well as in our homes. Essentially, we encourage every household to become more environmentally conscious of our consumer choices as we apply sustainable practices in our daily lives. Our ability to co-exist with eachother should be a celebration for Mother Earth too.
So let’s all commit to doing our part!
Together we CAN make a difference!
At AWS, we acknowledge that Climate Change is happening and that human industrial activity is causing the rapid acceleration of its negative impacts. We understand that is our responsibility to strive towards nurturing our Earth’s socio-environmental resources with steadfast, loving care. We also acknowledge that humanity is the most vital resource available to help build awareness & climate resilience.
Climate change is the defining global challenge of our time. Rapid changes to the global climate over the past several decades have already resulted in widespread impacts across human societies and natural systems. Continued changes of this magnitude will have severe and irreversible planetary impacts lasting hundreds of thousands of years, further threatening people and communities everywhere. Below are the international organisations that support this scientific consensus.
According to NASA and multiple other agencies, human activity plays a prominent role in the rapid acceleration of Climate Change. The combination of our day to day activities and consumer choices can be directly correlated with negative environmental impacts.
Despite the fact that human activity is the biggest cause of the overconsumption of food, water, and natural resources, humanity also happens to be the most vital resource available to help build awareness to achieve our sustainable development goals. Currently there exists many sustainable solutions to reduce emissions from human consumption across major economic sectors like food, agriculture, land management, transportation, energy, and materials. In one way or another, solving the global climate change crisis, is going to rely on changing our human behaviours and habits. More specifically, we need to become more aware of what we eat, drink, buy, and use. To put it simply, our planet’s future rests on:
At AWS, we encourage our entire community to:
Rethink - consumer choices
Refuse. - any single-use wastage
Reduce - energy & material usage
Reuse - & repair whatever you can
Recycle - everything that’s left
Last year, our AWS Resource Care Committee introduced a Zero Waste Program to the community. First, our awesome team initiated an education drive to build environmental awareness of the current nature of Climate Change. Next we set up classroom segregation bins and built a centralised Segregation Station within the school campus where students drop off their segregated resources on a daily basis. Our intention for these daily deliveries is meant to challenge each class to learn to hold themselves and each other accountable by becoming more aware of the waste versus resources that they produce. After taking these steps and doing a fair bit of troubleshooting, the RC Committee then built a Resource Care Facility in the school parking lot. This facility is designed to take in and further segregate all the resources, not only from within the school, but also from the households of every AWS family. We then have collectors come pick up and sometimes purchase all of our resources for recycling. It’s a truly remarkable program for our school community and the first of it’s kind in any of the subdivisions here in Sta Rosa City, Laguna!
Our Resource Care Facility is located at the parking lot near the Staff Waiting Area.
Please see the segregation classification list and printable sorting labels for your reference to initiative our Zero Waste Program within your household.
A) LANDFILL BIN
a. Diapers
b. Sanitary napkins
c. Plastic Q-tips
d. Bandaids
e. Tampon suppositories
f. Aluminum Foil
g. Aluminum tetra packs
h. Blister packs
i. Styrofoam
j. Scotch Tape
k. Frozen food boxes
l. Empty markers & pens, erasers
m. Glue bottles & sticks
n. Soiled paper (glitter, glue & paint)
o. Broken glass, ceramics , porcelain (flower pots, plates, mugs etc)
p. Windowpanes
q. Ropes & Garden hose
r. Metal paper clips
s. Eye-glasses
t. Used razor blades
u. Electrical Fuses
a. Bread, biscuits, cookies and buns
b. Fruit, egg and vegetable peelings
c. Paper towels and napkins
d. Coffee and tea grounds as well as coffee and tea filters
e. Meat & fish bones, fish waste, shrimp & crayfish shells
f. Food left-overs; cooked & raw meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, egg, milk, flour, rise & pasta
g. Snacks, candy and chocolate
h. Withered flowers, potting plants and soil from repotting, etc
C) PLASTIC BINs
(1) Reusable/ RECYCLABLE
a. Hard Plastics (Drink bottles, ketchup and mustard bottles, shampoo bottles and ice cream pots)
(2) NON-Recyclable
a. Plastic take-away drink cups
b. Soft plastic food packaging
c. Plastic lids, straws, utensils
d. Plastic Wrappers (Chip bags, candy wrappers)
e. Yoghurt cups
f. Blister packs (Must remove aluminum foil)
g. Plastic grocery / shopping bags
D) PAPER BIN
a. Clean/ dry cardboard
i. Shoe boxes
ii. Gift boxes
iii. Tissue boxes
iv. Cereal boxes
v. Balikbayan boxes
vi. Corrugated packing paper,(cardboard with a wavy middle layer)
vii. Cartons of paper, for example pasta packages & egg cartons
viii. Paper bags and wrapping paper
ix. Gift boxes and Christmas wrapping paper
x. Rinsed paper packages for milk, juice and other beverages
b. Scratch Paper
i. Newspapers
ii. Magazines
iii. Catalogues
iv. Paperbacks
v. Office paper
vi. Other printed materials
E) METAL BIN
a. Softdrink cans
b. Processed food cans (Aluminum & Tin)
c. Empty spray cans
F) GLASS BIN
a. Glass bottles & jars
a. Computers
b. Light bulbs
c. Watches
d. Toys
e. Fluorescent tubes
f. Low energy lamps
g. Mobile phones, including the battery
h. TV, radio
a. Pesticides
b. Old paint
c. Mercury thermometer
d. Glue
e. Solvent
f. Products marked with warning-text often contain environmentally hazardous substances
g. Lubricants
Please see printable sorting labels below for your household reference.
DROP OFF SCHEDULE
WHEN: Every Thursday, 11:30 am -11:45 pm
WHERE : Resource Recovery Facility
***PLEASE BE ADVISED - As of June 2019
Currently, our collectors are only accepting:
1. PAPER - White, Brown Newpaper, Cardboard Box
2. HARD PLASTIC
3. SOFT PLASTICS - Snack foils, packs, & tetrapaks
4. METAL