Mangere Bridge School’s WasteWise Warriors

A lot’s been achieved in the five years since Mangere Bridge School created the role of Environmental Educator.  Deputy Principal Jan Bills, a long-time advocate for sustainability within the school, saw the need for a dedicated staff member to have this responsibility and passed the mantel to teacher Don Biltcliff.  He’s tasked with role modelling sustainability, spearheading new initiatives and considering the bigger picture of where they might go in the future as a sustainable school.

 Back in 2010, Don’s first action was to implement the school’s commitment to the Council’s WasteWise Schools programme. This initiative provides mentoring and hands on support to schools with sorting out their waste systems and incorporating waste reduction into the school’s processes and curriculum.  Also in 2010, children studying ecology visited the Visy recycling centre in Onehunga to find out what happens to rubbish after it’s picked up from the kerbside.  “At that time, the Caretaker took the rubbish away before children got to school. The children didn’t understand the process”, says Don.  A waste audit was conducted of the rubbish being produced at school and they discovered that a lot of things were being thrown out that could be reduced, reused or recycled.  The children analysed the data and presented their findings at a school-wide expo at the end of the term.  

As a result of their work, lots of changes were made around the school.  “Turn It Over” bins were set up in every class for scrap paper. Food waste and recycling bins were put in the classrooms.  Worm farms were revived.  Assembly items and staff training was run, building knowledge on how to reuse and reduce rubbish. And a system of incentives was created across the school, to reward classes and individual students who made a special effort to reduce waste.  As a result, children started to show a general thoughtfulness about where rubbish goes.  Don remembers that this increased awareness and behaviour change “made a significant impact on how much went to landfill” from the school. 

Don believes the secret to the success of these measures was that they were done primarily “through the children”.  Don’s class, for instance, is responsible for inspecting rubbish bins across the school to look for “contamination”.  The children give classes rankings depending on the state of their bins, bestow WasteWise certificates on classes with well-sorted rubbish and award the sort-after “Tidy Kiwi” to a star class each fortnight.  Some children are even reaching out into the community with their passion for waste reduction, providing helpful suggestions to the on-site preschool on how they might reduce waste as well.  “All of this has been quite empowering for the kids”, says Don. “Certain kids really pick up on this and become leaders.”   

    

Families have also benefitted from their children learning about waste reduction at school. In his own class, parents have reported seeing their children turn into “waste champions” at home, ensuring that everyone knows which bin to put things in and educating family members on how much rubbish gets thrown away in Auckland each year.  The school is keen to keep encouraging families to provide “litterless lunchboxes” for their children and is looking at ways to support this further. “Even if 10% of our kids become passionate WasteWise Warriors out there we’re off to a good start!” believes Don. “That’s 10% more than before.”

For other schools keen to embark on a similar journey, Don would highly recommend finding ways to build WasteWise thinking into everyday learning in an authentic way and to make it part of what teachers already do in classrooms rather than an add-on.  “Getting people to believe it is important, and also the biggest challenge- management, teachers, parents and children. Ideally everyone would see the purpose and want to take part.”  Using local resources and building relationships with people in the community with knowledge, expertise and time was invaluable.  Don makes special mention of school parent, Ambury Farm Ranger and Friends of the Farm member Janine Nillesen, who’s provided hands-on support for the school at shared lunches and gala days.  “If only every school could have a Janine!” he says.

Mangere Bridge School has now officially graduated from the WasteWise Schools programme and wants to tackle other areas of sustainability.  Energy and water are next on the list, with dreams of using solar power and collecting rain water.  A fruit tree orchard is being developed.  Don is eyeing up the berm on Taylor Rd as a potential planting spot for edibles.  His enthusiasm and energy is infectious and it’s not hard to see how he’s managed to achieve such impressive results in such a short space of time.  “The future of the planet lies in the hands of the kids I teach today”, believes Don. “How we live is ultimately unsustainable, we have to make some changes, and as I tell the kids, if we think global but act local we WILL make a difference.” 

By Justine Skilling