The children have lunch in the classrooms on a Tuesday and Wednesday. Previously, their hot dinner was served in polystyrene containers and plastic cutlery was used. We now have hot dinners served in biodegradable cardboard containers. Instead of plastic cutlery, metal cutlery is used.
In addition to this, we have signed up with Terracycle. We get through hundreds of whiteboard pens, glue sticks and other stationary, most of which are recyclable. We did some research and signed up with TerraCycle. At TerraCycle, any brand of pen, felt tip pen, highlighter, whiteboard/flip chart marker,correction fluid pot/tape, and mechanical pencils with rubbers can be recycled. Once collected, the materials are sorted, cleaned,and melted into hard plastic that can be remoulded to make new recycled products.
Each class has been given a basket, with a reminder poster of what can go in it. Empty glue sticks can go in the basket too as these will be recycled separately. At the end of each term, I will take the boxes to a drop off point.
Here is a photo of our Eco-Schools board, where all the work we have done is displayed.
