A recent initiative from the Student Council’s Environment portfolio saw all bins in the Secondary campus taken away one Friday, with waste from students’ recess and lunch breaks collected in one big, visible pile.
The aim was to gain a clearer understanding of how just much waste is actually produced at the College by students in a single day.
Year 12 student councillor, Lucie Bray-Rudkin, said she had been “overwhelmed” when researching the impact that human beings have on the environment, and learned that the situation was not improving. “In Australia our population rose by 28% from 1996 to 2015, but the waste we produced increased by 170%!”
“I realized how incredibly important it is that we collectively change our attitude and begin to protect the earth instead of abusing it,” says Lucie, who explained that the rubbish collected on Friday will provide the council and Environment Club with valuable data to plan their next step.
She said it was encouraging to see students carry all their rubbish to the central collection point, as well as taking time to examine what they and more than eight hundred of their peers throw away from their meals at school. It was a real eye-opener for many, and what stood out was the large number of food items (from the canteen as well as from home) that came in non-recyclable packaging.
Lucie said Senior Student councillors were keen to reinvigorate the Environment Club again this year, and are planning a ‘nude food’ day and vegan stall later in the year.
“If we choose to ignore the environmental problems that face us, we’ll have no-one but ourselves to blame.”
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