Recycling at Margaret River Senior High School
The recycling program here at school has adopted many facets during the years since its inception in 1999. We started with a bang and took on many (probably too many) programs. These programs were:
- Worm Farms – We manufactured worm farms from recycled pallets and bred worms, sold vermi liquid and worm castings through an order form in our administration office.
- Composting – In our mechanical workshop classes we developed a design and built a large compost drum on a rotating stand. In the drum we composted shredded paper, chicken manure and lawn clippings. This made an excellent compost which sold well to the public and school community.
- We had a glut of waste paper collected and shredded from around the school so the viticulture class developed a paper maché mulch to be used under the vines as a water retention aid and mulch. The students were also trialling addition of organic and non-organic pesticides.
- Notepads – This is the main focus of our recycling within the school at present. Around the school in every class room is a dual box set up to collect paper used on one side only and the other to collect any other recyclable paper product. The boxes are collected by various groups or sent in by individual teachers to a central location where it is sorted. The recyclable paper is boxes up and sent to the facility via our kerbside collection system. The single sided paper is made into notepads and sold through a vending box in the town shopping centre, given to staff and students within the school and made up into orders for various businesses around town such as the Fish and Chip Shop and Taxi Service.
The pad making is the only activity to run all through this time period and is still very successful on a day to day basis due to its sustainability, the supply of paper and demand for pads and the whole school involvement in the program. The other programs still have the infrastructure and capital equipment in place just waiting for a teacher with the right combination of classes, energy, and motivation to continue.
Other Activities Within the School
The students at this school have been involved in National Tree Day and Clean Up Australia Day for the last five years. The educational benefits of this activity are in line with the school’s mission statement of Respect. In this case respect for the environment and how to reduce the impact of waste on our environment by making a real difference at a local level. National Tree Day really gives the students a strong feeling of making a difference when they see the trees planted by former students or come back in years to come and identify trees that they planted in year 8.
More Smart, More Safe, More Teen
No matter how big or small, litter is litter, no matter how big or small, it still harms the local flora and fauna in our region. The youth of today should be more conscious of the ramifications littering has on our local environment. Whenever we drop an apple core, orange peel and a chip packet, these not only harm the animals we see in our rainforests and other southwest landscapes, but also our marine life. Although we hate to admit weve done it, we have all littered at least once in our lives. But possibly for different reasons. Today, teenagers and adults alike, sometimes we think it is inescapable, if there is no bin present or even if we simply cant be bothered walking that extra 20 metres. Walking that extra 20 metres goes along way to the fight against litter bugs today. To endeavour towards a cleaner town we need more teens to be smarter and more safe with there litter.
Waste Wise Schools Program
As part of our school policy, Margaret River Senior High School is striving to implement a new Waste Wise Program in 2011. Last year, our school was nationally recognised as a Waste Wise School and we proudly display our plaque within our Student Services area.
The projects main aim is to reduce landfill and in general, to raise student and community awareness of the need to do the right thing by our environment now and in the future.
RETHINK
REDUCE
REUSE
RECYCLE
is the aim of the game