If your new to this site, i have been trying to convince a local Melbourne primary school that they could try to adopt my TWO BIN system for the bin stations in and around the playground. Unfortunately there hasn’t been a lot of support thus far. They just keep going down their path which I have tried to explain is the wrong way to go.

Without going into a whole lot of detail, just take a quick look at the bin station above. The stencil work went up just the other day – to my horror!

Will someone please tell me how much glass these people expect to find in the hands of primary school children playing in the playground during lunch time or recess??(see the recycling stencil – ‘glass’).

Oh well, onward we will go. Slowly but surely. Perhaps one day they will realise that the TWO BIN (food/other) system can work in a primary school playground. Until such time you’ll find me over by the ‘chook’ shed bashing my poor head against the wall.

over&over
wasteman

I went to throw my daughter’s school uniform in the wash the other day and felt something in the pocket. She had eaten her snack and brought the empty glad bag home. I know this sounds ridiculously simple, perhaps even bleedin obvious…but trust me…it’s not!

If I could, I would give her one million house points for her effort.

This is a photograph  inside a yellow lid wheelie bin situated in the playground at the primary school.

The yellow lid is supposed to be for council approved recyclable materials only. This bin is full of everything.This material will not be recycled. It will be landfilled due to excessive contamination. Please remember one of my favorite sayings…

You can rubbish rubbish!

I didn’t want yellow lid wheelie bins in the playground. They just appeared (see earlier post -The cart before the horse).

I’m going to continue writing my report and the school might just have to back track a little. 

One thing is for sure…my report will argue against yellow lid wheelie bins in the playground.

Anyone who want’s to argue for them, feel free. This website is the place to do it.

over&over

wasteman

Apologies for being extremely slack when it comes to posting in this category.

I arrived at the school today to discover compost bins had been purchased and placed randomly all over the place. Also I discovered brand new council yellow lid ‘co-mingled’ 120 litre bins sitting  along side the compost bins in the playground. 

As we say around our home from time to time…HOUSTON…WE HAVE A PROBLEM!

This appears to be a classic case of the cart before the horse,  and to be perfectly honest, I’m not exactly sure what to do about it. Someone around the school is putting systems in place before the plan has been created to determine the systems. I’ve got a problem. Stay tuned…

Yes it’s true. Today I met with the principle of the primary school I have offered to write a waste management plan for. I’m pretty sure she’s interested because she has invited me back on Friday morning and is wanting to give me one hour of her time. Heavens To betsy! The principle did mention that although there are initiatives in place, there is no one single document or plan to deal with hard waste. Thank heavens for that. I’d pretty much be wasting my time if there was.

The idea is to gather information as to the current situation. What are the policies, strategies, programmes etc that are already in place. One has to be careful here. No matter how daft you might think some of the existing strategies are, they are, none the less, strategies that have been developed by someone in (or connected to) the school who may actually believe in them. Of course there could  be some really good stuff! 

The good news is that the report will no doubt be able to ultilize this background information and I dare say, it will probably constitute a large chunk of the  introductory section.

We shall speak again after Friday.

over&over

wasteman

I must admit I did have one little concern when I agreed to prepare this waste management report. I was concerned that people and politics were going to get in the way. 

Yesterday I called the waste contract company to ask them some questions and they told me that they would be happy to help as long as we had permission from the school.

I have written an email to the school asking for permission to gather any relevant information from any relevant source….LET’S SEE WHAT HAPPENS NOW!

Will I get the permission I require without any fuss or stress, or as mentioned above, will people and politics get in the way?

Stay tuned for the next exciting episode…

over&over

WASTEMAN

This is the first post with regard to a waste management plan for a primary school. I like the idea of being able to post online because I will be able to continue working from where I left off each time.

The actual title of this project is:

A HARD WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR A PRIMARY SCHOOL.

So I guess the first questions are… what is HARD WASTE and why are we mainly concerned with this type of waste for the purposes of this project?

Hard waste is the waste that you can see and touch. It’s the Big M carton you’ve finished with. It’s the cardboard box the new computer came in. It’s the Gladwrap your mum or dad wrapped your sandwiches in. It’s the old printer cartridge, the tin that the tuna came in, the straw you needed to drink with for some unknown reason. It’s yesterdays newspapers. Hard waste is the solid touchable ‘stuff’ you don’t need anymore. Some people refer to it as ‘RUBBISH’…Personally, I don’t believe in rubbish, but that’s a whole other story. It’s the stuff that ends up in the back of garbage trucks. Usually it stinks, but that’s only because there is food (and probably nappies) mixed in with it. 

The reason why this project is concerned mainly with HARD WASTE is because LITTER could be regarded as a form of HARD WASTE and at St Kilda primary there is a big litter problem. Truth is, it was the escalating volume of litter that was the number one instigator for this project.

But like all environmental issues (and litter is certainly one of those) nothing acts in isolation. So if we can look at developing a simple hard waste management plan, I feel confident that through this process we will help to curb the litter problem.

I have said that I would be prepared to write a ‘HARD WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN’ for a Primary School in Melbourne.

This category will continue to present posts that relate specifically to this project. This category will be if you like, a running diary or commentary of the process.

Please feel free at any time to comment or contact me with thoughts, suggestions or ideas. It’s not that I don’t have any of my own, it just wouldn’t hurt to throw some ideas around.

until next time

over&over

wasteman