Waste has been one of the bigger challenges we have had to face at Frankston HS. With over 1600 students and 150 staff there is huge amount of waste produced annually. Frankston has always had paper, cardboard and commingled recycling in place in staff areas but achieving a whole school recycling initiative was a daunting thought! After a whole school waste survey it was discovered that over 60% of the waste going to landfill was recyclable. As such the staff lead Sustainability Committee decided that whole school commingled recycling was the best option for Frankston HS.
Presently no recycling contractors offer a commingled recycling service to schools. To overcome this obstacle we needed to attract a contractor, however to make it financially viable for a contractor we needed to think bigger than just Frankston HS. Thus, we decided to begin the long process of initiating a low fee commingled recycling service for all schools interested in the Frankston area.
The first step we needed to take was to gage the level of interest from other schools and get some data on the amount of recyclable waste currently going to landfill. As such we organised and emailed a waste survey to all schools in the area. We received a large amount of interest in the initiative, receiving completed surveys from over 15 schools in the area. We then compiled all of the information into an excel spreadsheet and initiated contact with the Frankston City Council. The Council was keen to be involved in the process and as such the Waste officer is currently approaching possible contractors that may be interested in the initiative. It is hoped that we will be able to get the initiative up and working in early 2010.
In addition, the student lead Environment Committee has also been integral in educating members of the community on waste education. During late 2008 the Environment Committee planned and ran Environmental Workshops themed around water, waste and energy to year 8 students. The Waste workshops were a huge success with positive feedback from staff, students and parents.
In 2009 the Environmental Committee decided to take the workshops to primary schools in the local area, presenting the workshops to year 4 students from Derinya PS. Once again they were a huge success. The committee now plans to expand the workshops to other primary schools in the area.
