The Business of Recycling

OUR PROJECT by students at Arbour Vale School 

THE BUSINESS OF RECYCLING

Why we chose it

We chose this topic because our school uses a lot of material and since we are focusing on recycling and keeping our earth clean, this topic was the best.

We did a lot of work this year around saving our earth and there’s a lot of pollution everywhere, and we’re focusing on the fossil fuels, its importance and its impact.

We want to make sure that the earth is livable for our future generations.

RESEARCH

We asked Pinnacle (our school maintenance team), dinner lady, Post 16 staff who collects recycling, finance office (who deals with paper orders), café vibe (they cook food for school staff), and our Art Teacher (who told us about re using the cardboards and other materials).

We went around different classes to ask for the number of gloves they use every day and then turned all this data into how much we will approximately use in a year.

IN SCHOOL AND ONLINE RESEARCH

We searched for information on google on topics like global warming, sea pollution and replacements of plastic. We also looked for how we could use recycled products in and around school.

We also researched where our waste goes and who collects it. It’s collected by an organization called Lanz Group (in Colnbrook). They take all the rubbish in the van and they sort it out in different piles / compartments and then recycle the right materials.

IMPACT ON THE PLANET AND SCHOOL 

We made an earth model out of cardboard and put plastic and rubbish around it to show how much our earth is polluted.

The gloves that we have on our model represents – Plastic pollution and the waste we have around the earth.

Plastic bottles in our model represents plastic pollution in water

SENSORY GARDEN MODEL – we have greenery, bird feeders (suitable for all sizes birds), fish pond, water feeder for birds, bird bath (all made from recycled plastic).

QUIZ- to try and get staff and students aware of how much we are using and wasting and test their knowledge about it. We asked about wastage of gloves in secondary department.

IS IT THE RIGHT BIN Game – we had three boxes with three different recycling items ( paper ,plastic, waste materials)  – we asked kids to put the correct things in the right bin- so that they can learn and be aware of the materials and throw it in the right bin.

RESULTS

WE FOUND THAT OUR SCHOOL APPROXIMATELY WASTES:

-2880 reams of PAPER a year

-12 boxes i.e. 48 TONERS a year

-41,000 pairs of GLOVES a year

-4560 PAPER TOWELS/ TOILET ROLLS a year

-950 bags of FOOD WASTE a year

-190 bags of PLASTIC a year

-190 bags of TIN / CANS a year

PROCEDURE

Assembly

We conducted an assembly to try and get staff and students aware of how much we are using and wasting and test their knowledge about it. We asked about wastage of gloves in secondary department

RECOMMENDATION

We spoke to our Principal; We presented our project and discussed about how much resources our school uses – how much is wasted and how much is recycled- After that he tried our recycling quiz and was shocked by most of the answers as he wasn’t aware of a few figures.

He told us that he recycles his Aluminum coffee filter and he puts the left over coffee in his plants to help them grow as the coffee is organic. Once the recycle pack is full, he takes it and gives it to the Nespresso store where they recycle it. He also told us it is important to recycling and the rest of the school should know. He also mentioned how impressed he was with our hard work and dedication to make the world a better place.

WE SUGGESTED THAT :

-We can use both sides of paper

-We can have separate bins for gloves and plastic

-We could use recycled paper towels and toilet rolls

-We could have electric hand dryers

-We could have reusable cups and not plastic cups

-We can make people more aware about saving the ecosystem by introducing games day (based on recycling and preserving the earth)

-We could make a sensory garden made out of recycled materials and every class can have a week to maintain it and nurture it.

CONCLUSION

-We learnt that we need to recycle and re use the things.

-We need to be mindful while using single use products

-We learnt how many types of bins exist and how important it is for our environment

-We learnt different ways to recycle items and re use them

-What we can actually recycle

-We learnt where our school waste goes

-I learnt how much gloves our school wastes

-We learnt that we could re-use plastic bottles and make bird feeders

-We should use rechargeable batteries

-We could use reusable sandwich wraps

-Next time we could do a mentoring project with some other class and cascade their skills and knowledge to them.