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Recycling project not a waste

Tristan WheelerManjimup-Bridgetown Times
Amanda Sparkes and Elizabeth Corrigan with the our war on waste board.
Camera IconAmanda Sparkes and Elizabeth Corrigan with the our war on waste board. Credit: Manjimup-Bridgetown Times

St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School in Bridgetown has embarked on a recycling project that has seen it reduce its weekly rubbish.

Led by library assistant Elizabeth Corrigan and cleaner Amanda Sparkes, the school dropped from 12 council bins of rubbish per week to between two and four.

The project has a number of different facets and aims to educate students on the amount of waste generated, as well as alternative ways of storing food.

This term the school has created a policy that requires students to take home lunch box rubbish such as cling-wrap or empty packets, as a way to make students and their parents aware of the rubbish generated by lunches.

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“That was putting the onus back on the students and their families to look at the rubbish they were generating in the first place,” Mrs Corrigan said.

On days where the school canteen runs, a washing up station is available to ensure that recyclable plastics are washed before being placed in recycling bins.

In the school’s classrooms, standard bins have been replaced by five different bins for different waste — pencil sharpenings, tissues, compost and soft plastics and a small bin for general waste.

“I might only empty the recycling bin once a week in their classroom, which is just their papers and stuff like that, but the small bin, there is generally no waste in there,” Mrs Sparkes aid.

The project was conceived at the end of 2019.

“We looked at the amount of waste being generated in our school generally between teachers and students and we felt that we had to change,” Mrs Corrigan said.

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