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A set of rubbish and recycling bins at Orewa College, valued at around $1600, was won for the school through the creative efforts of its Enviro Group.
The mainly Year 7 students in the Enviro Group entered a national competition to make a video pledging to “put litter in its place”. Along with eight other schools, they won a set of bins that are colour coded to help with correct separation of rubbish – red for landfill, green for compostable materials and yellow for recycling.
Year 7 teacher Sarah O’Donnell, who formed the Enviro Group, says the clearly marked bins are making a difference, with more of the right things being put in the right bins by students and staff.
Compostibles end up in the school’s worm farm or compost bin.
The competition was a partnership between the charitable organisation Be a Tidy Kiwi and The Packaging Forum, which is responsible among other things, for the soft plastic recycling scheme.
The Packaging Forum’s litter project manager, Lyn Mayes, says 18 councils have adopted the new bins in the past three years, although there has been some resistance due to a desire for colours that blend in, rather than stand out.
However, Lyn says that eye-catching bins that use nationally agreed recycling and waste colours work by helping the public identify which bin to use.
Be A Tidy Kiwi programme manager Richard Leckinger says “binfrastructure” trials in towns around the country have reduced contamination of recycling, which happens when non-recyclable materials are added.
“We are delighted to get these bins into schools that otherwise couldn’t afford them,” Richard says.
The scheme received $1.72 million from Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund.
