Five Easy Steps to Save the World

1.   Stop putting foil and plastic in your lunchbox.
2.   Buy one sandwich wrapper made out of fabric.
3.   Start to encourage friends to do the same.
4.   When you go to New World with a sibling or a parent, they might try to buy something with a wrapper.  Say NO!
5.  Don't be lazy, put rubbish in the rubbish bin.  Don't leave it around.

By Bonnie R16

Rubbish in Playground After our Clean Up!

Today we photographed areas where there was a lot of rubbish.  Here is what we found today.  We were very disappointed.  One of the worst areas is in the area below the path where high school students and the public walk (on the lower side of the path).  Another area we found lots of rubbish was in the tussocks.  What can we do to solve the problem?

Questions & Answers

What was the most common type of litter?
Plastic, paper & food wrappers.

How much was food?
30% in weight and in amount.

How much was packaging?
About 55%.

How much was plastic?
28%

Could any of this be recycled?
Yes.  We could recycle the paper, plastic, cardboard and wood.

Could any of this go into a compost bin?
Yes.  The paper and the food scraps.

Would healthier food reduce rubbish at our school?
Yes.  We thought that fruit, did not have any packaging so its good to bring for morning tea and lunch.  Sandwiches and wraps etc were also good because you can put them in a reusable container or one of the eco sandwich wraps. 

Would the 3 R's help reduce rubbish at our school?
The wood could be reused, the plastic, cardboard and paper recycled and we can definitely reduce the rubbish we bring and discard.  The other bits and pices we found could be reused for art activities.

Does our school have enough litter bins?  Are they in the right places? Do our children use these enough?
We discussed this at length.  We decided we had enough bins and it was our job to make sure we took our rubbish home, began using our bokasi buckets again, started a worm farm and had a school compost bin that we would have no need for bins at all.  

Do we need a compost bin or a worm farm?
Yes.  We decided to write to Jo Roberts and ask if this can be started.  She is in charge of our Eco School programme. 

Do parents waiting outside our school cause any rubbish?
We did not think they were causing any litter.  There was 1or 2 New World bags and some cigarette butts, but because we are a 'Smoke Free' school these were not from our parents.  Maybe the bags had blown into the school and the cigarette butts from people coming through our school at night or the weekend. 

Is there any one company involved in our litter?

No one company.  The wrappers were the biggest concern.  We found Fresh up cartons, Cadbury mini bars, Pam's wrappers but there were many other varieties as well.  We thought we could write to some of these big companies to try and persuade them to use more environmentally friendly packaging and wrappers.  

Rubbish Collected in Grams

Playground Rubbish Audit