Zero Waste Lunches & Events
Today, in our affluent society, we tend to choose the "fast" and the "convenient", when we shop, when we eat and even when we play! Little consideration is given to the longterm environmental or social consequences of our choices.
Take a look at your and your friends' lunch boxes. Can you spot one without a bit of plastics or other rubbish? More than likely, you'll see boxes full of individually packaged, single-portioned food and drink items.
A typical primary school child produces more than three pieces of rubbish a day, just from his lunch and morning tea at school. A school of 800 kids thus produces some 12,000 pieces of rubbish a week or nearly half a million pieces a year! In the UK, it has been estimated that up to 8.5 tons of lunch waste is generated from an average sized junior school.
Take a closer look and you'll find that much of the packaging is made of non-recyclable or non-biodegradable materials, i.e. rubbish for the sake of convenience or hygiene.
Go along to your school fair or any public events, and most likely you'll be purchasing plastic bottles or aluminium cans of drinks, sandwiches in cling wraps, hot dogs in styrofoam boxes or crisps in non-recyclable plastic packages. Where does all this rubbish go when you go home?
Rubbish Free Lunches
Let's look at your lunch boxes again. Can you rethink what you may put in it instead, so you don't make any rubbish at the end of your lunch? What about a sandwich or bread roll (without plastic wrapping), an apple or banana, some cheese, yoghurt or grapes in a small Reusable container, and your own drink bottle? With these, there will be no rubbish at all except an apple core or banana skin that can be composted to enrich your school garden. Oh yes, this is "do-able"!
Class 6 M of Tewantin State Primary School does this regularly (photo above right courtesy of teacher Terri Anne Harris). A waste audit conducted in June 2008 showed that it produced a third less rubbish than another class with their "normal" lunch boxes.
St. Andrew's Anglican College (SAAC)'s week long Rubbish Free Lunch Stars over their Health and Fitness Week (27 Oct - 2 Nov 08) has achieved some great results. On most days of the week, over 300 of the 468 students brought lunches without any packaging waste. 206 of he students became "superstars" by staying rubbish-free for the entire week, avoiding the production of over 4,608 pieces of rubbish. The school plans to continue this effort through the year, with random checks of rubbish free lunches every two weeks.
During a Rubbish Free Lunch Day, students at Mordiallic College in Victoria were able to reduce their waste by 59.3% (in weight) while Portland Secondary College reported a reduction of 89% (in volume). Bentleigh West Primary School, with a 'Nude Food' Policy which discourages disposable / pre-packaged lunches, and a practice whereby students eat lunch indoors, has resulted in an almost litter free school yard. Since the introduction of an Environment / Sustainability Policy in 2001, the school has halved its waste to landfill.
Would your school consider adopting a Rubbish Free Lunch or Nude Food Policy? This would help turn the once-off rubbish-free lunch day into a regular, school-wide 'practice of choice'!
The planning and implementation of Rubbish Free Lunches can be integrated into many areas of the curriculum from maths to SOSE, science, technology, art and english. Check out Education Victoria's Rubbish Free Lunch Challenge Units designed for students from Prep to Year 10, incorporating fun, practical activities into their curriculum.
For tips on how to make nutritious, delicious and rubbish free lunches, click here.
Waste Wise Events
A huge amount of waste is generated from school and other public events. Typically, these include:
- recyclable food and drink containers
- food scraps
- cardboard and paper
- 'biodegradable' plates, cups and cutlery
- special waste (e.g. cooking oil, disposable nappies, cigarette butts)
- general waste (e.g. non-recyclable & non-biodegradable packaging, plastic bags, contaminated recyclables)
Unless a thorough waste management system incorporating waste reduction and recycling is put in place, all of this waste will end up in the landfill.
Waste wise events:
- minimise waste, and
- maximise recycling
The aim is to minimise the amount of waste sent to landfill by reducing the amount of waste produced in the first place, and recovering much of the resources by recycling and composting.
In addition to environmental benefits, turning your next school functions into waste wise events will also stimulate social ethics and responsibilities among the school community. It will likely also enhance your school image and make the functions more attractive to sponsors and patrons.
Waste wise events require strategic planning, promotion and communications with waste contractors, vendors and patrons beforehand. Effective bin placement, signage and supervision / monitoring of bin usage during the events are crucial. At the end of the events, waste audits will provide data and information needed to report success or areas in need of improvements.
South Australia's Zero Waste program provides detailed Guidelines for Event Organizers that may be adapted to suit local / specific circumstances. It also has many interesting case studies and useful information such as an Assessment of Biodegradable Catering Products.
Locally, the Queensland Litter Prevention Alliance (QLPA) hires out 'bin caps' for 240 L recycling and general waste bins to be used at public events, and may also assist in waste audits. The Environment Protection Agency has a catalogue of signages and promotional materials for Public Place Recycling which may be used in your events.
