At Silverton, we are working towards becoming a sustainable school. This means that we are trying to reduce our energy and water usage and the rubbish that we produce at school.

 We are part of the Resource Smart School’s Program and our goal is to become more sustainable by saving energy and water, reducing our waste and increasing our biodiversity. If we can do this, we will become a Five Star School, the first in our area.

 We are currently at Four Star status despite having completed all four modules. To become a Five Star school we also need to reach certain benchmark for reducing water, energy and waste and increasing biodiversity. We have reached the benchmark for water and biodiversity but not for energy and waste.

Targeting Waste

At Silverton, we are producing one of the highest levels of rubbish in the state when compared to schools within our population range in the Resource Smart Program. We have increased the amount of waste that we are sending to landfill over the last two years.

We need to reduce our waste and we need your help.

At the end of 2019 students from Grade Three and Four learnt about the huge problem of food waste going to landfill.

At landfill, food is buried with all of the other rubbish and as it decomposes, produces methane gas. Methane gas is a greenhouse gas twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Together these gases are making the greenhouse gas layer around our earth thicker. When this happens the sun’s heat becomes trapped in the earth’s atmosphere causing the earth to become hotter and our climate to change.

Small actions such as reducing our food waste going to landfill can help reduce the amount of methane produced.

Students also came up with the following actions to take to reduce the amount of food waste we are sending to landfill.

Actions to reduce food waste at school

• Parents should not give students too much food for snack and lunch because young students they cannot eat it all.
• Students should have less snacks so they can eat more of their lunch at lunchtime.
• Parents should buy small apples and bananas because little kids can’t eat big apples and bananas and throw them into the bin.
• Older students should pack their own lunches because they know how much they can eat.
• Students should take any uneaten food home so their parents know what is not being eaten.
• Students should tell their parents what they like and don’t like to eat because lots of food is not being eaten and thrown into the bin.
• Pack more fruit and vegetables so the scraps can go into the compost bin.
• Put compost bins outside in the school ground for students to put their fruit scraps in.
• If you can’t eat all of your snack and lunch put it back into your lunch box and eat it after school.