Our aim is to help you by providing a dynamic, engaging and effective resource for environmental education at school. We would like to promote environmental issues as an exciting part of teaching and learning and we value your feedback on ways to best engage pupils more effectively so that they take what they learn out of the classroom and into the home and the wider world, making a real difference to the environment in which they live. If you have any comments about the site please e-mail them to environment@spelthorne.gov.uk
Reducing your school's carbon footprint The Sustainable Development Commission has been studying the current carbon footprint of schools on a national level. If the aim is to reduce this we have a long way to go.
Carbon footprint data supplied by the SDC
This is because there are a number of trends affecting the sector including:
Increasing student numbers Capital investment Extended school opening ICT School Choice Internationallinking Business as usual
Each of these are likely to substantially increase emissions to the extent that taking part in minimum carbon reduction measures will only have a neutralising effect. In short, emissions will stay the same into the future, and are more likely to keep on climbing.
In order to achieve reductions, we need to focus on areas with the most potential for reduction. Schools can demonstrate leadership by encouraging sustainable practices as part of a community-centric resource. Younger age groups and primary school children are already very engaged in sustainability throughout the country and it is important to sustain that enthusiasm through secondary school and beyond.
It is important to tie sustainable practice into the curriculum so it doesn't just make more work for teachers. Furthermore, it is vital that the wider community be engaged and involved. There is little value in creating a sustainable school in a fractured community. There are several elements of the national curriculum into which sustainability can be embedded including sciences, geography, PSHE and drama. It fits very well into the national “Every child matters" and "Care for pupils” initiatives.
Delivering sustainability as an educational tool needs to be done in context. Pupils need to have ownership of activities and of developing strategy for the school. The least effective model nationally has proved to be those staff-led initiatives in which the students do not have an active stake.
A new collection service for schools is being rolled out in Spelthorne with 25 schools already having been supplied with large recycling bins. The bins themselves are former paper and bottle banks from our own bank refurbishment project and some from our neighbouring borough of Elmbridge and we are reusing them in order to try and give young people the same collection service from school as they have at home.
With paper and cardboard being the major products generated by schools, a collection service for this material has reduced the amount that participating schools need to use their rubbish bins. Schools have also found the diversion of some kitchen packaging useful, for example; tins and cardboard trays.
Data from a 2007/8 survey by 4S
Within the collection scheme, we are able to divert something in the region of 38 - 40% of the primary waste stream leaving us with the need to cut about 20% of the remaining waste, either by further diversion (eg. textiles recycling) or through reduction. A lot of that residual waste is likely to be organic.
We have been looking at the prospect of using aerobic food digesters to further decrease waste volume. One school who briefly tried reactivating their existing Green Cone digester to tackle the KS1 Fruit waste, found that it was quickly overwhelmed. Use of these would mean installation of a large number on each site. Research continues.
The project is currently in the process of rolling out to other larger schools including secondary and independent schools in the borough. Each school has their own individual challenges to face in adjusting to the new method of collection.
All the participating schools have worked very hard with the Council on making this project a success. They have a lot to be proud of in having so effectively reduced their rubbish output from an average of 10,000kg per school per fortnight to an average of 5,448kg per school per fortnight or 17.9Kg per student.
Spelthorne Borough Council and Abitibi-Bowater Recycling Europe are collaborating to offer you the chance to become part of the highly successfulPaper Retriever® programme. Abitibi-Bowater is the biggest collector of used newspapers and magazines in the UK and is part of the largest recycler and newsprint producer in the world.
The take up for Paper Retriever has been enormous with demand momentarily outstripping supply. Now nearly all of the schools that applied for banks in November have had them delivered or are waiting for deliveries. There are effectively nineteen new paper banks in the borough exclusively for the use of schools with the income generated by the collection of this valuable resource being returned directly to the schools themselves.
Abitibi Bowater runs regular recycling promotions to motivate participation in schools and engage the local community. The company will regularly service the Paper Retriever® container at no charge to the school, weighing the paper at the time of collection and providing them with a quarterly statement and cheque.
If you are interested in becoming part of the scheme, please contact b.owora@spelthorne.gov.uk, or call 01784 446310. A representative will then make contact with you to arrange a site visit.
