Like many schools, the school community at Shaftesbury Park Primary in Wandsworth recycles all they can, but sometimes the job of keeping everyone motivated and informed about exactly what to recycle can fall off their busy radar.
Since our first visit to the school back in 2003, when just paper was being recycled, some interesting developments have taken place. Pupils conducted a waste audit as part of this year’s Recycle Western Riverside programme, and revealed that after they started recycling all the materials accepted in the orange recycling bag scheme, the school has managed to cut the waste it sends to landfill by a staggering 85%! Pupils also discovered that contamination levels in many areas of the school were high, with too many non-recyclables found in the orange bags and lots of paper being wasted in the bins.
Shaftesbury Park were offered help from the RWR Consultation Service, now available as part of the schools programme. The service helps schools like Shaftesbury Park to identify the challenges, set simple targets and also provides the resources and support to help get things back on track, and keep them there.
Deputy Head teacher Tom O’Donoghue explained, “We all sorted the bins out together, and showed the office staff what we could have saved by recycling all the paper and separating out the cellophane from the binned paper”. But having sometimes noticed “a certain lack of commitment around the school,” Tom admitted, “it’s something we’ll need to continue to work on”.
The free consultation service helps each school focus on what it’s doing well, and identify where more work is needed. We collaborate with each school to create a Sustainable Schools linked action plan and help schools link into green procurement. Plus each school we work with will receive reusable recycling bags with handles - ideal for pupil recycling monitors- and a bumper new action pack of resources, containing posters, stickers, badges and guides for office and kitchen, all specially designed to embed the reduce, reuse and recycle message throughout the school building.
When tackling the “stubborn areas” of any school, Tom knows the message “needs to come less from individuals and more as a whole school ethos”. Tom has been inspired to enlist a new dedicated eco coordinator at the school, and says that with the new resources he “predicts great things” for cleaning up waste at Shaftesbury Park
Get your school back on track - book your free RWR programme, consultation and action pack now! Contact
education@wastewatch.org.uk or call 02075490324