Plastic Recycling

[Levi2023]

Good morning all, hope we are all keeping well and are counting down the days till October half term!

I've just had a small chat with our head today about looking into becoming more of a eco school by recycling our plastic and potentially making projects using these materials, I was asked to look into getting some bins purely for plastic bottles, can anyone recommend a good supplier or even any advice on how this idea can take off?

Many thanks

[Red]

We looked into this and came to the conclusion that plastics represent such a small portion of the overall litter in the school. Not worth paying for separate bins. The kids mostly have refillable bottles, so no plastic from them.

[Sparky]

Talk to whoever carries out your refuge collections. They may already have something in place that could help you out.
Ours is done by the local borough council so extra plastic bins were provided and one small for each classroom at no additional cost. Fortunately with our council most recycling is free.
Be prepared for extra work tho….
Our pupil parliament came up with this “fantastic” idea also. Every class would recycle with the idea we would single handle save the planet….
Each class or year group would have a recycling champion to ensure the waste is moved out with the help of the TA or teacher. We, as in site staff would not be involved other than arranging the extra collection.
Fast forward 3 years or so, i couldn’t even tell you where the 25 collection boxes are now ?? It was a disaster. No one wanted to empty the class box outside, bottles were piled high within a week or so and just ended up being binned by the cleaners.
It’s a great idea in theory, but just make sure everyone will see it through. Be careful what you wish for sometimes.
Good luck

[Richard M]

We have been able to introduce and maintain some basic recycling schemes to support our school (and governers) desire to be eco-friendly or "green"
It has to be simple and workable. So we have ordinary black bin-linered waste bins in class for 'landfill waste'. We have a different shaped/size/colour bin with transparent bin-liners for 'recyclable' waste. Paper, ali cans, plastic bottles (rare) and cardboard. Cleaners place these in our recyclable main waste containers which are collected (by Suez). Cardboard is the main stream followed by paper. Ali cans get collected seperately in the staff room. Coke/Redbull etc. A 'green champion' in each class keeps an eye of these waste bins.
We also have battery collections with an ERP box in the school reception and one in the staffroom. Please see the ERP scheme which is free (government/industry funded). You order the cardboard box collectors with strong plastic liners and then email for collection when full. Thet accept any and all consumer batteries. The cjildren get involved and bring them from home rather than landfilling them.
We also collect ali can ring pulls and send these to the Purple Community Fund to help this worthwhile charity. See web site.
Just take a couple of poster print offs and a collection tin or bottle. Both recycling and third worls support.
We no longer collect crisp packet and LDPE (polythene, polypropylene or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bread bags as all the supermarkets collect these. However pupils will collect any in school (fruit bags/packed lunch packets) and a staff member/volunteer drops these off.(Tesco)
My motivation is showing and teaching the children to recycle and they have responded very well.

[greenjack]

Recycling. Crops up every year. A new eco group starts and new bins are bought. No one actually discusses who will empty the bins/containers which always end up mixed anyway. I remind them it’s not my job to clear it all and within weeks the latest bins are being used for all sorts of storage. We’ve just started the process again with the new term.

[Nigel]

Recycling. Crops up every year. A new eco group starts and new bins are bought. No one actually discusses who will empty the bins/containers which always end up mixed anyway. I remind them it’s not my job to clear it all and within weeks the latest bins are being used for all sorts of storage. We’ve just started the process again with the new term.

Same here, teacher, now left, wanted to do this and I explained that our rubbish goes in clear bag and waste collector sorts, no point putting it in different bins as the cleaners will put it in the same bag!

[Nigel]

We no longer collect crisp packet and LDPE (polythene, polypropylene or low-density polyethylene (LDPE) bread bags as all the supermarkets collect these. However pupils will collect any in school (fruit bags/packed lunch packets) and a staff member/volunteer drops these off.(Tesco)

Anything I buy from Tesco wrapped in plastic goes back to Tesco in their recycling container, whatever plastic it is goes in, they produced it, they get it back