Ready - Aim - Zap it.

I am passionate about recycling and would love to see a national container deposit scheme giving children motivation to be enterprising, collecting containers to earn spending money. I admit I am obsessive about trying to maintain ZERO TOLERANCE of one piece of rubbish on our school grounds.

I would like to remember some of the stunts/tricks and tactics that has helped some children stay on side as incredible leaders so here goes … it is a work in progress …

READY – AIM – ZAP IT

We try hard to do the right thing, but some days it seems is as if we have never mentioned or sung songs about the ‘R’ word.

Classroom teachers continually revise concepts and sadly, the same perseverance is needed with outdoor life skills.

Some adults are surprised that kids forget what they know they should do. Life is busy at school.

Doing the right thing to reduce the environmental footprint is not on the agenda.

I’m happy most children ‘get it’ first time or ‘had it’ even before starting school.

My guess is 75% of children at our school NEVER lose their lunch box, hat, jumper, have never left their property lying around.

Reflecting on the leadership they show during their years at our school motivates me that more students can learn skills to do the right thing.

Frequent lost property customers and rubbish questioners can be trained and motivated if we keep encouraging and patiently answering the “which bin does this go in” question.

Strategies to reduce waste, increase personal responsibility and appreciate those who do the right thing are constantly changing.

Walking with children to our outdoor learning area we carry a bin. Kids call out “Zap it” if they spy some rubbish that has escaped.

The rubbish dance is done from time to time if we notice a Preppie who has picked up a container without being asked.

Motivating them to notice rubbish and not pretend they could not see it lurking on the ground or hidden in a crevice is powerful.

Encouraging children who do the right thing because managing their property and rubbish is the right thing to do helps them develop leadership as they train a friend who has not caught those skills yet.

When there is a large crowd eating their lunch we sometimes ask for silent eating and give a recycling message.

Pointing out the way to eat the whole apple I ask “ Are we apple wasters?”  No

Showing the collection of apples and fruit that has hardly been touched we sing “Someone was a Waster”

When I show the untouched sandwiches, fruit, tuckshop … I ask … what is that?  They answer … “That’s Ridiculous.”

Raving on about eating just one more bite of the apple or one more bite of the crust I ask … Deal or No Deal?  They respond “Deal.”

We point out the crows and birds hanging around. It is the measure of how well we are doing at managing our eating and waste.

We use 125 litre bins at eating time

Red lid = YUKKY stuff = LANDFILL and evil plastic wrappers.

Yellow lid = cardboard packaging, poppers, tin cans, aluminium but DEFINITELY NO FOOD OR MILK to go smelly.

Small open white bin = worm food, compost and chooks -  fruit scraps but no citrus.

In classrooms we have a recycling box for paper and cardboard – NO plastic, NO tissues, NO pencil shavings.

When half filled two children bring it to the blue lid 250 litre bins for recycling. We pour it in to an industrial bin and commend the children for having no contamination. They have to take the message back to their class how well they did.

Cleaning the bins … we don’t use plastic bags regularly which means more effort to keep them clean. A piece of cardboard on the floor of the bin helps it fall out quickly. A few interested children help watch the bin as it is emptied to guess at the type of things being wasted or recycled. A demountable building with a dripping airconditioner is a good bin washer. Water in the small bins can be transferred a few times then used on a nearby garden.  If the bin is gross we hose/brush or water blast.  If there is no food, yoghurt, milk, juice going into the recycling bin it help keeps the bin clean.

The worm food bucket is washed out at the chook yard and the water trickles on to plants.

Come to Popper

I am not a fan of sugary fruit poppers at school and try to recognise children who drink water and use the cool water bubblers provided at school. Our challenge is to “drink it dry”, a concept borrowed from a New Zealand schools milk program where they fold the popper flat for recycling. We write a chalk label on the ground for an open bucket to collect poppers. Straws and the evil plastic cover that block up the pool filters if set free into the environment go in the “YUKKY” bin destined for landfill.

A supervised gimmick to encourage our volunteers is the chance to pop the popper. Point the hole away from people and call out “Come to Popper” … a flat container means hundreds more will fit in the bin. We routinely crush cans and plastic containers.

Lost Property

I could not count the number of times parents have come looking for lost property, hat, jacket, drink bottle, lunch containers, homework folder, pencil case,  … and tell me how many times this year they have come looking for little darlings property, or how the plastic container cupboard at home is empty, or how they have bought 10 lunch boxes. I bite my tongue and wonder, “so why are you looking for it?”

Walking back from the pick up point to retrieve property has an amazing capacity to reinforce self-responsibility. We have lost many  loyal customers as they learned organisation skills through some tough love and Mum not coming looking for it.

Policing the “no food” in a recycling bin is challenging but consistency reduces the amount snuck in.

Coaching and thanking children as they come to use the bins is the best option. Nice children thanking and helping is my ideal but hard to make happen regularly.

Chalk labels on the ground mix up the message children are seeing to reinforce their behaviour.

Stickers on bins are helpful, but tend to be ignored after a few days.

Our labels include : Poppers   Aluminium cans   Plastic trays   Metal trays  Paper bags  YUK (Landfill)  Fruit (Worms, chooks)

Tuck shop day is hard work. Children want to play so the fastest thing is to stack everything in the brown paper bag and throw it in the bin. Smarties work out they will be called back so they tear their name off the bag or container.

Providing enough separate bins is the key to reducing the mess of contaminated recycling.

Volunteers help “Thank” kids for doing the right thing. It is frustrating but I would rather kids know they can ask 1000 times how to deal with their popper or recycling until they get it.

They might take it home and assume responsibility for their recycling bin.

Training kids to eat more of their food/ sandwiches/ apples is a challenge.

Apple races to finish the whole apple sometimes helps get new kids into “whole apple eating”.

Noticing and catching kids who do the right thing and celebrating their efforts is motivating.

We could feed 30 kids with what is wasted every day.  With the messages we give about waste and doing the right thing it horrifies me to think what happens in the real world.

If kids want to come down to the outdoor area to play with chooks, build cubbies, dig clay … I might ask for 10 donations for the auditing bucket … straws, wrappers, they know the secret hiding holes, the evil glad wrap. They turn on their zappers and go for it. We quickly analyse what they have found lurking around.

Lunch boxes being left all over the place is  … a challenge – they get kicked – food goes flying – fruit is lost and rubbish lurks.

Volunteers going past bring lost property to one central location which gives a chance to talk to the “someone took my lunch box” kids who should not have left it out in the sun.

Water bottles are a challenge – we send at least 100 to charity every term along with 200 lunch containers. They used to go straight in the bin when left out so at least they are being recycled. Bottles and containers that are too dodgy to go to charity can be washed and used in the outdoor area for clay and seed collection.

I personally try to pick out the glad wrap and chip wrappers from the recycling bin but never ask the kids to do that sorting.

They could if we were set up with gloves, tongs, but with so many kids wanting to get down and build/pay it is a luxury I don’t have time to do and getting kids out of class time is just about impossible.

As I empty the 120 litre bins into the 240 litre bins I do it slowly so the kids can see what is going in – that makes them aware that there is way too much food wasted and put in the wrong bins. I reckon there is 50 kids who absolutely do and know the right thing to do without any human or adult intervention – I keep trying to encourage them to teach a friend but it is slow going. Hundreds of children have a bin licence from shifting the bins into the eating areas or helping with paper recycling.

A stunt that has worked well is showing a wrapper that has been ignored for a few hours on the ground. I “read” the message on the wrapper.  “Congratulations, the person who found this wrapper has won a free iceblock at the tuckshop.” They know I am joking but get the message.

Singing songs, particularly Jack Johnstons “3 R’s” is another means of getting the message across.