Langford
Waste

Since the existence of Native American tribes the need to sustain our earth's resources has been a challenging task. An Ancient Arapaho Proverb states:
"take only what you need and leave the land as you found it."

Evidence from this year’s World Summit in Johannesburg and photographs shown to us by the Urban Studies Centre suggests that alongside pollution, global warming and homelessness, waste, that is, the misuse of the earth and its resources continues to be an increasingly important global issue. We are taking more than what we need and not leaving the land as we found it and ignoring the fact that the world and its resources are not sustainable. Through our investigation Year 6 aims to devise an action plan that can be implemented at school to help increase sustainability of our earth's resources.

Information presented to us by a community based group called Waste Watch indicates that the misuse of resources has increased over the past hundred years despite increased initiatives to address waste issues. Statistics show that the paper and card waste has increased by 28% over a 100 year period alongside food waste which as increased by 10%.

Year 6 undertook an exploratory walk around our local environment to see if we could see evidence to support these statistics. From the photographs that we took we concluded that few bins existed in our local area, that the bins that existed did not have separate sections to sort different materials and
there were no visible signs to promote recycling.

To extend our research from local to city based we visited Rainham Landfill Site and the MRF-Materials Recycling facility both located in Essex. We were able to view a barge carrying waste along the Thames and understand the purpose and need for a landfill if we are to increase sustainability.

Education Officers at the MRF informed us how materials can be reused. Did you know that 16 large plastic bottles could be used to help make a jacket?

Also we watched a video and took a tour of the Recycling Facility, a mass scale recycling facility where through the use of high-tec machinery materials were separated, sorted and bailed so that they could be distributed for reuse. Year 6 also found that many composters existed on the site where perishable food products can be decomposed. The MRF also has a large textile bank and promotes the recycling of clothes.

Acting on the suggestion made on our trip to the MRF by the education officers we presented the idea of a clothes drive at our school assembly. Over a one week period, Year 6 children went around to each class and collected articles of clothing brought in from home that they no longer used. The initiative led to us collecting 13 garbage bags of recycling textiles for the MRF.

Following our textile collection we conducted a school waste audit whereby we collected the entire school’s waste over one day. In small groups and with the assistance of educational officers from Waste Watch we were responsible for sorting, measuring and recording the types of materials and quantities found of each in different areas around the school.

We found:
plastic
paper
cardboard
metal
Non Recyclable paper
food
textiles
organics
and even a dolls house.

From our waste audit we were able to confirm our predictions that our school’s major misuse of resources would be paper. Our results show that of 40.44kg of our total waste of 50.96kg was paper followed by cardboard and 3.4kg of metal.

Our investigation showed that the area that had the highest total of waste was the school office with 4.33kg and followed by the nursery whom we measured 2.74kg of misused resources.

Despite an overall weekly waste count of 37.93kg we calculated that on average each person throws away 6.3kg a week of waste.

As a means of providing an explanation to these results Year 6 developed a 7 step questionnaire. Designed for students from Year 2 - Year 6 it helped to determine factors that allow for the misuse of resources. The questionnaire aimed to find information which would allow us to see whether children knew what recycling was, whether they recycled or used recyclable products and could provide valid reasons for recycling.

After distributing the questionnaire to 101 children we found that despite 87% of children knowing what recycling was only 22% of children recycle. The primary material recycled being paper which they reuse as scrap paper. Our results showed that the older the child surveyed the greater their understanding of recycling. Year 6 was able to conclude that to effectively address the issue of recycling in our school that our peers needed to be taught about recycling from early Key Stage 1.

Following the school questionnairewe devised separate questionnaires for the head teacher, site manager and stock officer. These were designed to see what strategies were already in effect in our school to combat the misuse of resources. Data from these questionnaires showed that Langford does have a recycling bin, we do buy recyclable products from Viking but Langford has not yet implemented any policies to reduce or prevent rubbish.

Once we collated all our research we discussed what positive policies we could implement through an action plan to decrease the misuse of resources in our school. Arapaho states that if we wonder often the gift of knowledge will come.

Year 6 has taken great care in devising a suitable Waste Action Plan with suitable initiatives that coincide with the aims set out by Hammersmith and Fulham’s Draft Action Plan.

Alongside the Council’s aims, Langford’s Plan is to encourage more people to do their bit and help increase the amount of material we recycle and to increase the opportunities for everyone to recycle and compost.

Year 6 has set out 3 main objectives which we will strive to achieve during the 2002/03 school year.

1. To not make so much paper and cardboard rubbish.
Practical examples of this are:
- to only give newsletters to the eldest child at the school
- use both sides of the paper
- reuse paper for scrap paper
- use a rubber for mistakes
- use only recycled paper in all key learning areas
- and keep cardboard boxes for storage
- reuse paper and cardboard in art and design and technology projects.

2. Secondly to stop useful things going into the bin.
Our waste audit proved that often resources disregarded as waste are still reusable.
Year 6 adopted the motto ‘Think before you Throw’
We devised a list of questions to ask before deciding to throw something out.
- Do you respect your own and school property?
- Can the material be reused?
- Could your material be valued by someone else in the school?
- Would the younger children be able to use it to make something from it?
- Could the material be changed or modified and still have some use?

3. Year 6 aims to reduce the amount of food that we throw away. Through increased communication with the dinning hall a selection of healthy and more suitable menus could be revised to limit wastage.
Our class developed the concept that ‘more is less’. That is put only what you are going to eat on your plate therefore minimising your own individual wastage. Alternatively bring in packed lunches and start a compost or wormery.

Data from our questionnaires showed that if we’re serious about the misuse of resources that the principles of recycling need to be introduced as early as Key Stage 1. With the proposed introduction of fruits in schools for Key Stage 1 this is a prime opportunity to increase awareness. As our school deals with an extra 150 apples cores each day and other organic waste as such as peaches and oranges we will need to ensure that the whole school is provided and uses extra bins.

Whilst our Action Plan is devised to ensure that locally we are taking responsible action to reduce the misuse of resources, this alone will not increase the sustainability of the earth resources. Email links to Sunnyside Primary School in South Africa have allowed us to share and compare information about our local environments and share initiatives that are in use globally to prevent the misuse of resources.

In conclusion it is essential that each individual exercises good recycling practices to ensure that we conserve our local resources and minimise our waste. However the quantity of misused resources will never permanently reach an acceptable level unless action plans are developed by all schools world-wide. Year 6 realises that we alone can’t change the world alone and make it a better place but we can begin in our daily practises at both at school and at home and set the example to those around us.

We leave you with the words of a Native American:
"Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I’ll understand."