Can Kegworth become Zero Waste school? Here’s where to start
By Penelope Wong (Year 3)
Did you know that some of Kegworth’s most popular treats at the canteen are frozen Milos and juices? They come in a single-use plastic cup and spoon. Students throw away around thirty kilograms of rubbish a year just from their school lunch. That’s like throwing one of your friends in the bin every year!
Single-use plastic is killing our wildlife and swirling in enormous garbage patches in our oceans. This made me think – how can we solve this problem? Can my school go zero waste? Zero waste means reducing our rubbish so that nothing goes to landfill.
Kegworth already does a good job to reduce waste, but I think that we can do better. I have a plan, but I need your help.
Have you ever taken a peek in the rubbish bins at school? You will find single-use plastic cups, food packaging and food scraps.
By making a small change to our crunch, lunch and recess, we can definitely reduce our waste. We can use reusable containers without cling film or foil. Let’s start recycling our soft plastics and cut down on buying multipack snacks.
Our canteen can replace single use plastic with washable plastic cutlery and cups. With every frozen milo, frozen juice, custard and jelly sold, we will definitely save hundreds of plastic pieces going to landfill every year.
It sounds hard, but other schools in Australia are going zero waste. Calare Public School in Orange has started a No Waste Wednesday. Every Wednesday, students bring in a zero waste lunchbox.I challenge everyone at Kegworth to go zero waste. We can start with a No Waste Wednesday. We can work with other schools in Sydney who also want to go zero waste. Then we can definitely save our wildlife and planet together.
As Dr Seuss wrote in ‘The Lorax’: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
