This week at Council we got to hear from two of our partners who are doing great work in the district – Enviroschools and Zero Waste Education. These programmes are run in schools to help educate children about minimising waste, recycling and sustainability. Year 7 and 12 students came along to present what they had been working on and some of the successes they’d seen.

Angus and Amy from Elstow-Waihou Combined School are part of an environmental group that is made up of representatives from each of the classes. Their outcomes are driven by the school values and then chosen with input from the students, teachers and whānau. So far, they have put in a worm farm, grown hundreds of potatoes and pumpkins, and painted a shed in bright colours. Now they are focusing on planting a sound barrier of native trees to block out some of the noise that comes in from the main road. Council even offered to come out and join them for a planting day!

The Enviro-leaders from Morrinsville College only joined the programme last year, but they’ve already undertaken a waste audit and started to work on solutions for minimising and recycling. They are trying many different ways to target students, including the school newsletter, regular challenges, and hosting environmental days. Fortunately, by coming in to Council, they were able to connect with Marty from Paper 4 Trees who supplies schools with paper bins to encourage recycling.

Marty is also part of Zero Waste Education, a programme that has been going for 15 years in our district. They provide new lessons to kids each year and provide them with workbooks and homework sheets. Part of the strategy behind this is that the kids will go home and help to share their lessons with the household, which will ultimately lead to a reduction in waste and more effective recycling for our district.

It was great to see such passionate young people across our district taking responsibility and finding creative solutions for waste. If your school would like to get more involved in sustainability education, then get in touch with us or check out these websites to find out more: https://zerowasteeducation.co.nz/ & https://enviroschools.org.nz/.