Antonio Catholic School has always been environmentally conscious and in recent years has implemented recycling practices and worked towards reducing our waste output. During our involvement with the SHEAP (Southern Hills Ecological Action Project), we decided to really focus on improving our efforts to see how well we could reduce what we were sending to landfill each week.
To help everyone get motivated in cutting down waste output and to raise the children’s awareness, we worked with the Onkaparinga Council and the NRM Education team. We introduced a new waste system for our school - involving the use of 3 colour coded bins in each classroom: yellow for mixed recyclables, blue for paper recycling and red for landfill.
To further reduce landfill and to process our food scraps and organic waste, we introduced food compost bins for each classroom. We compost our food waste to use on our vegetable gardens and in our worm farms - the rest then goes to our chooks, who then lay the most amazing eggs.
To help educate the children about the use of each bin and to help them develop ownership of the programme, our music teacher Victoria Traeger wrote a song called “What goes where in the Stop Light bin”. It is a catchy song about the types of rubbish that goes in each coloured bin. The children have performed the song during class and at assemblies. They also video taped their performance and published it on YouTube. It has been a really effective way of helping the children remember what waste is to go into each bin in a fun way.
As part of the process of raising awareness, we were also lucky enough to have a performance by “Wally and his Wipe Out Waste Wizard” organised through the Wipe Out Waste team at KESAB. This was really enjoyed by our children and was another way of conveying the message to our children in a fun and entertaining way.
All of these things have led to a fantastic response from our children and staff (yes, we have the colour coded bins in the staff areas too!). We recently had our landfill (red) bins audited by Jo Hendrix from Wipe Out Waste and we have set a new state record low at only 0.048L/person/day going to landfill. That is about only 3 tablespoons of landfill waste per person per day!
Whilst we’re proud of what we have achieved so far, our aim is to look at lots of other ways to reduce our overall environmental footprint here at Antonio Catholic School and in everyone in our community that their choices and actions can make a positive difference.
Intergenerational playgroups are truly something special — an experience that enriches the lives of both the young and the older members of our community. These playgroups are more than just a space for children to play; they are a vital platform for different generations to come together, share wisdom, and build meaningful relationships.
