After different year groups had looked at the results of the audit, we had our clear action plan of what we wanted to tackle. A student in Year 9 suggested that as Lent was coming up, we could use it as an opportunity to launch our new recycling scheme. Lent is a time for fasting, praying and giving, so we can give to our environment and school community by taking care of it.
1 - recycling bags in each classroom. We found that plastic water/soft drinks bottles were one of our highest used items from the audit but instead of just tackling the bottles, we decided that recycling bags which can also take paper, aluminium drinks cans and tin foil will make a really big difference to the waste we create. To get students using the bag we decided that a form competition across Lent would be a good idea. Each form group will bring their recycling bag to the hall where prefects will weigh them and log what has been collected, empty the bag and then it will be weighed again the week after. Across Lent, the form that collects the most recycling will win a prize.
2 - broken pen recycling. Our audit showed that we use lots of pens and whiteboard pens by students and staff and at the moment we bin them when they are empty or broken. We have found out that Ryman shops (there is one in Coventry and Leamington) have a pen recycling scheme run by Terracycle, so we can collect them in classrooms and then ask staff to take them to the shops.
3 - crisp packet recycling. This is because "food packaging" was one of the highest items from our litter pick and as many local supermarkets now do soft plastic recycling, different staff can easily take them to be recycled. We decided that the best location for this would be the canteen and then a group of students can collect them each week.
We are excited to get started though this period of Lent and beyond!
