It’s a given that schools can’t afford to do everything they’d like to, but that narrative gets repeated so often that it’s easy to miss the cheaper actions that are well within reach.
There are low or no cost actions that will save thousands of pounds in energy bills or in water rates. But there are various actions that will actually make or save you money, particularly relating to waste – which, during Zero Waste Week (2-6 Sept) could be great initiatives for schools to get behind with their students.
Here are five to consider from Let’s Go Zero’s Climate Action Advisors:
1. Run an eco-refills shop:
Getting refills can be a bit of a hassle. You have to make a pilgrimage to the refill shop or a supermarket that offers them, and remember to bring all the right containers. What if there was a refill shop at school, which busy parents already visit twice a day anyway?
Pupils Profit is an organisation that helps students to set up refill shops at school, providing everything they need to set up their own micro-enterprise – including lesson plans on understanding the maths and logic of a business.
2. Collect unwanted clothing and sell or swap
Bag2School is a well-established business that pays schools for clothing and fabrics. They’ve paid out millions to schools over the last 20 years and have become a useful fundraising tool, with some schools making it an annual campaign.
Just register on the website and start collecting – there are resources to help you make a song and dance about it in the community. Parents and pupils bring in unwanted items of clothing, bags, shoes, etc. It’s all collected and you get paid by the tonne. The items are then sold to wholesalers and sorted for a wide variety of uses, keeping unwanted fashion items out of the bin. Many schools before getting to the selling stage, also run second-hand uniform (and even prom dress) swap shops in their schools.
3. Recycle more and host a drop-off point for 'non-standard' recycling
Council recycling tends to take care of the obvious things such as paper and card, tins and bottles. Contact your local Let’s Go Zero climate action advisor who will do a waste audit with you, liaise with your council and recycling bodies if necessary, and work out if there’s anything more you can be doing.
There are however various forms of waste that can be recycled that aren’t collected by the council. Instead, they go in dedicated drop-off points that are hosted in convenient ‘passing by’ locations – think of the battery boxes in supermarkets.
Schools can host these too. Have you got space in an entrance hall, reception or near the school gates for a drop-off point? Terracycle run schemes for recycling things like biscuit packets and Pringles cans. Each box you send back earns points that can be redeemed for cash.
4. ‘Is it really necessary, or can it be re-purposed?’
These are questions we ask ourselves in our personal lives every day to make sure we’re living within budget, but in a big organisation like a school, the questions can often get missed as the busy-ness of daily operations take over. The amount of unnecessary waste is often huge – and ways of reducing waste (and therefore saving money in paying for unnecessary replacements or paying for waste to be taken away) can easily be identified when a climate action advisor walks you through a set of questions.
Oci Stott, Let’s Go Zero Climate Action Advisor in London says: “We do a waste audit with a school and identify what could be changed in terms of re-use or purchasing. One new build school in Sevenoaks used repurposed office furniture in their staff room instead of buying new. Another school in Lewisham does a raffle that students get entered into if they bring in hard to recycle goods, like batteries and pens. The best way that we can support schools and the environment is not just to deal with waste in a sustainable way but to reduce consumption in the first place. And of course it is not just about reducing the waste and cutting consumption, but engaging the students and changing mindsets, which is just as important.”
5. Minimise food waste, and then get composting
Allowing students to choose their portion size, can dramatically decrease the amount of food that goes straight from plate to bin without reaching a fork. St Francis Xavier School in Richmond, Yorkshire used a very popular technique of weighing the food waste at the end of each lunchtime in the dining hall for all to see, and creating a daily competition to reduce it – it worked so well that they reduced their food waste by 20 per cent.
For waste food either from plates or cooking processes, then composting is the big winner – for practical and environmental reasons. Schools are often put off composting because of the amount, the expected mess, and not wanting to attract rodents – but fully enclosed, insulated composters can be a brilliant answer. They work by creating a hot, aerobic system inside an insulated waterproof cylinder. Rotate the handle every so often (a fun activity for students too!) and the compost gets mixed and the anaerobic composting system facilitated.
The larger versions can process up to 400ltrs (200KG) of food waste per week and can deal with all types of food waste and bio-degradable green waste on-site. The compost can then be used on the school garden, meaning no artificial and expensive fertilisers need to be bought! Damers First School in Dorset were one of our first Let’s Go Zero schools and one of the first schools to get this system – and they are very happy! Read their story.
Sign up to yn rhedeg her flynyddol Go Zero to get free support from a local yn rhedeg her flynyddol Go Zero Climate Action Advisor who can visit and give advice on how your school can manage its zero carbon journey. Join for zero carbon schools • Lets Go Zero
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