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There are several reasons why a school may decide to take action to reduce waste. More often than not, this springs from a desire to do something positive for the environment, to instil a sense of environmental responsibility into tomorrow's decision makers through pupil involvement, or as a way to enhance the profile of the school in the eyes of the local community. Increasingly though, it is seen as a cost saving measure as waste reduction makes economic sense. Whatever the reason, the benefits are wide ranging and the opportunities to involve pupils in practical action to help the school are great.
This section of the guide will take you through some simple steps to work effectively at reducing waste at school. Because schools vary in size and make up, it is deliberately non-prescriptive but rather provides a series of guidelines and pointers to action.
Sheets you can copy for your own use are marked…
It is important to remember that you won't become a waste-free school overnight and it will take a while to build up support, particularly in larger schools. For more ideas look at the case study material in Section Three. Remember, start small and build on your successes!
Before you take action, it is important that you have collected the necessary information about the existing waste management system in your school. Only when you have built up a picture of the types and quantities of waste produced and what happens to it, will you then be able to make informed decisions about reducing it.
This is a simple exercise that you can complete within the school although the amount of time you spend on this "waste audit" will depend on the detail and accuracy that you want. A brief audit should provide enough information to decide whether recycling could be a viable option, but as with any planning exercise better information leads to better plans and a better yardstick to judge progress. Once you "know your waste" you can then take practical action!
Typical school waste includes the following materials:
Office Paper
Clean, white paper used for photocopying, word processing, computers etc.
Mixed paper
Includes mixed white, glossy and coloured paper, newsprint and magazines and sometimes paper towels and cardboard.
Cardboard
Used for packaging.
Cans
Steel or aluminium.
Plastics
Includes plastic bottles which can be recycled in some areas, food or sandwich packaging and plastic bags
Glass
Usually glass drinks bottles. Many schools do not allow pupils to bring these onto school premises.
Aluminium foil
Should be collected separately from aluminium cans
Organic waste
Food waste, grass clippings, hedge trimmings etc. Can be composted.
Residual waste - everything else!
includes materials which cannot easily be recycled such as some types of packaging, as well as those which can be recycled but are produced in much smaller quantities. For example, toner cartridges, scrap wood and metal and textiles. Other wastes such as chemicals from science classes, herbicides and pesticides and cleaning materials are potentially toxic and need special treatment.
What is a waste audit and how do I carry one out?
There are two components to carrying out a waste audit. Certainly the most graphic for the pupils is to carry out a waste inventory by physically sorting waste produced in the classroom and around the school. This way you can measure the waste you are looking at fairly accurately. Combine this with a staff questionnaire and you will be able to gather further information about how the school waste management system operates.
What will a waste audit tell me?
Businesses often measure their waste by simply looking at the quantities of materials they purchase. This "front end" approach is difficult for schools because the flows of material are often quite different to just what the school buys. Pupils and staff bring in and remove a large and unquantified amount of material which makes it difficult to draw any links between materials purchased and the waste stream. This is why the best way to find out what is in your waste stream is to physically sort and measure it by carrying out a "Waste Check".
You will need:
To carry out a "Waste Check" take the following steps:
1. Appoint your waste monitors
Firstly, you need to decide which parts of the school you wish to look at. Are you going to concentrate on only one classroom, a range of areas or the whole school? Once you have decided, find out who will act as "waste monitors" in these areas. You may decide to use cleaners, caretakers, teaching staff or pupils but make sure that those who normally collect the waste are made aware of, and support your plans. Then request that your waste monitors keep the waste aside.
Have you thought of all parts of the school? Here's a checklist:
Classrooms
Staffroom
Administration Office
Headteachers Office
Common Room
Canteen
Washrooms
Corridors
Outside Litter bins
School Grounds
Have you thought of everybody? Here's a checklist:
Pupils
Teachers
Departmental Heads
Administration and secretarial staff
Caretakers
Cleaners
Canteen Staff
Grounds Maintenance Staff
2. Keep your school waste for a day
Once you have your waste monitors, inform them that they need to set aside their waste for an appropriate period (e.g. one day), for examination the following day. Remember, the longer the sampling time, the better the accuracy will be. You might like to organise inventories over several days to analyse variability. Waste will also vary at different times of the year, e.g. autumn will produce more leaf waste. Keeping waste dry will ensure consistent weighing across all materials.
Make sure all bags are labelled with their area of origin within the school and the name of the waste monitor. Think about displays mounted for special events (such as parent evenings) and end-of-term clean-outs and the amount of waste these will generate.
3. Classify your waste
With a number of pupils, sort the bags into various materials, e.g. 'plastic' or 'metals', (not their use e.g. 'sandwich packaging'). The overall aim here is to see which items can be reduced re-used or recycled.
Items which contain different materials may prove confusing causing pupils to put them in different categories, so it is important that everyone is quite clear from the start which categories items fall into. One way round this is to provide posters of particular items, e.g. drinks cartons, including information on what items are made of and how the materials are recycled. This will help explain which items can be recycled and which cannot. See Section Four for contacts who can supply this information.
Make a note of any unusual or small items perhaps placing these in a "residual" category. Remember that some items cannot be recycled (e.g. crisp packets and sweet wrappers), these will need to go in the residual category. Make sure appropriate protective clothing (overalls and thick gloves) is worn as waste can be hazardous.
NB Separate waste paper into "office" grade and "mixed", because these are recycled separately. (If there are large numbers of paper towels, it may be worth separating these into their own category)
4. How much does your waste weigh?
The best way to record the quantities of sorted waste before returning them to the bins is to weigh them. Spring balances are ideal for weighing bags of waste, alternatively there may be scales in the school. If you can't weigh the waste, then estimate quantities by ranking the most common materials.
Use the "Waste Check" on page 12 to classify and weigh your waste or draw up your own.
Once you have an idea of the types and quantities of waste produced in the school you now need to identify:
This information can be obtained easily through a simple questionnaire which you can pass to the waste monitors or others who have responsibility for different parts of the school (see checklist left.) Gathering this information will help identify potential future savings.
Use the following waste audit questionnaire or make your own. Why not get pupils to conduct short interviews with the relevant staff?
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Area of school (e.g. classroom) |
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Number of bags collected |
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Name of monitor |
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Position (e.g. pupil, teacher etc.) |
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Start date(s) of Waste Check |
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Finish date(s) |
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Using the table below, list the items you have found, their weights and the percentage this is of the total. Remember to include any small items:
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Percentage of total |
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Office paper |
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Mixed paper |
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Cardboard |
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Aluminium cans |
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Steel cans |
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Aluminium foil |
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Plastics |
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Glass |
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Organic waste |
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Once the waste check is complete, ask the waste monitors if they know of any items which are produced infrequently and may not have been detected (e.g. printer cartridges). List them below:
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This questionnaire is part of an important study of the waste produced in __________________________ School to help us find the best ways to reduce, re-use and recycle it. Please take a few minutes to complete the following questions:
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Area of school (e.g. classrooms, canteen etc.) |
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Your name and position |
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Who is responsible for moving your waste to the school collection point? |
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Where is the waste stored and how large is the storage area? (how many days waste can normally be stored there?)
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How is the waste stored before collection? please tick
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bins |
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skips |
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plastic sacks |
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other (please specify) |
Are you aware of any health and safety requirements for the handling of your waste? If so, what are these, and for what wastes? (e.g. Care of Substances Hazardous to Health, Duty of Care, Special Waste Regulations)
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How is waste managed when it is leaving the school?
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Who collects your waste from the school? |
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How often is this waste collected? |
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Is there a charge for this collection? If so, how much? and how are charges calculated? (per bin, per visit, by weight, by volume, flat rate etc.?)
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Have your waste collection charges changed recently? (they may have increased as a result of the Landfill Tax) |
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What are the start and finish dates of any collection contracts? |
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Where does your waste go once it leaves the school? |
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Are you already reducing, re-using or recycling your waste?
Are you aware of anything that you do which prevents the creation of waste? (e.g. do you use notice boards or circulars to give out information instead of giving out individual bulletins, or use electronic mail within the school?)
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Are any materials re-used? If so, how much and for what purpose? (e.g. double sided photocopying, scrap paper pads)
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Do you operate a recycling scheme and what types and quantities of material does it generate?
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Do you buy recycled products?
Do you "buy recycled" and if so, which products are they?
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If not, why? Can you identify the barriers to buying recycled materials (e.g. cost, quality, didn't know of any etc.?)
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This final part of the questionnaire concerns the whole school and should be directed at the Headteacher:
Does the school have any explicit policies or schemes aimed at reducing, re-using or recycling waste? If not, why?
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How successful are these policies/schemes? Could you do more?
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Was any recycling scheme run in the past but given up? If so why?
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Does the school have any policies to favour the purchase of products made with recycled materials? If not, why?
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Who is the schools main supplier? Do they stock recycled?
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Do your waste collection contractors have any relevant plans (e.g. price increases, new services?)
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Does the local authority have any plans which are relevant to waste management in the school?
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Are there any community groups who collect for recycling in your area?
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Thank you for your assistance with this questionnaire.
The information we obtain will help us assess how to increase waste reduction and recycling in our school.
Please return this form to:
Once you have carried out your waste audit, you will have a much clearer idea of the waste management system in your school and you can now decide how best to reduce the amount sent for disposal. Indeed, you may have already identified a number of ideas. This section will help you to focus these ideas and show you how to put them into practical effect.
As you will have seen from Section 1, the first option in any good waste management strategy should focus on prevention. This should be followed by options for re-use, recycling and finally disposal.
Conscious of cost, few schools use more materials than they need to. However, there is always scope for waste prevention and re-use. Here are a few ideas:
Many areas now have children's scrapstores, where safe waste products are collected from local business and industry and passed onto schools and playgroups for re-use. Find out if a scrapstore operates in your area by contacting the Waste Watch Wasteline (0171 248 0242). Similarly, local Furniture Re-use Projectsoften collect used or broken furniture/electronic equipment for repair and refurbishment before passing them on to those on low income or charities.
The materials in your school's waste stream which are generally the most suitable for recycling are paper, drinks cans and organic materials for composting such as grounds and kitchen waste. Many schools collect cans as these are most likely to generate money for the school. Other materials which may prove worthwhile are cardboard and plastic cups. Materials which are produced in smaller quantities may also be recyclable. You may of course, during your waste audit, have identified other materials not mentioned here.
Thorough market research is essential for the success of any recycling project. You need to know in advance what the potential for recycling is in your area, and you must remember to avoid collecting materials for which you cannot find a market. Some materials are valuable enough to warrant payment e.g. aluminium, some may just save on disposal costs, e.g. paper, but this often depends on the state of material markets which, at least for paper are often volatile. Don't forget that recycling in schools is firstly providing major environmental and educational benefit. Any savings or financial profit from the scheme is a secondary benefit or bonus!
Setting up a recycling scheme involves making arrangements with a company or your local council to collect reclaimed materials and then organising collection of materials within the school.
Making arrangements for collection
Among the main issues in school recycling schemes are:
Paper is an ideal material to recycle and schools generate large amounts of it. Generally two grades can be collected:
1. Office Grade - this is usually made up of uncontaminated white office and computer paper containing no glued documents or window envelopes. (It can be valuable.) Collections are often made once you have a minimum amount for collection. Place bins in the "hot spots" first - like near photocopiers, in administration offices and the staffroom.
2. Mixed Grade - mixed white and coloured paper, newsprint and magazines. Collected within the school with the option of allowing pupils and parents to bring in paper from home. (Less valuable than office grade)
Cardboard, although often produced in large quantities is a low value product. This, combined with its high volume and low weight, means it does not usually attract commercial recyclers. However, it's worth asking your Recycling Officer whether cardboard could be collected from your school. If not, try and keep boxes for storage or encourage people to use them at home for this purpose.
Aluminium and steel drinks cans are worth recycling. The value of scrap aluminium is several hundred pounds per tonne. Environmentally, aluminium recycling saves about 95% of the energy costs of producing it from bauxite. Steel is worth much less but can be separated from the aluminium magnetically and again, saves energy in smelting steel from raw materials. If your school allows cans on site then a recycling scheme could remove between 5 and 10% of the waste stream and potentially provide an income. "Hot spots" for collection are tuck shops and recreation areas.
There are many types of plastics in the waste stream and they can prove difficult to separate, which is a barrier to recycling at the moment. If your school uses plastic disposable cups for hot drinks, a scheme called "Save-A-Cup" collects cups for recycling. The main plastics which are currently recycled are those used to make bottles and polystyrene.
Composting organic waste is a good way to deal with waste and gain a useful end product. Grass cuttings and other grounds waste can be mixed with food waste in a compost heap. Using the resulting compost will save money on soil conditioners and fertilisers. You might consider buying a shredding machine for woody waste such as hedge trimmings, before it is composted. Avoid including meat waste as this can attract vermin. Smaller schools may be better catered for by a worm bin - where worms in a container rapidly digest organic material into humus. Does your council operate a household collection of organic waste the school could be included on?
It may be possible for other materials to be re-used or recycled. Those listed below may be produced at irregular intervals or in small quantities. For example:
Science chemicals, solvents, pesticides, herbicides (these can be quite toxic and may need special treatment)
For more information on any of the above materials, see Section 4, contact your Recycling Officer or the Waste Watch Wasteline.
"Closing the Loop" refers to the recycling loop and a crucial, but often overlooked, issue in recycling. Collecting materials is all very well, but unless you as a school are actually buying recycledproducts you're not really recycling at all. Buying recycled ensures a market for recycled products - if there's no market, then recycling won't happen.
Many people still believe that buying recycled means buying inferior. These days, new technologies mean this couldn't be further from the truth. Many recycled products are high quality and compete well on quality and price. For example, many recycled papers are now as white as non-recycled. Some companies offer re-manufactured toner and inkjet cartridges at considerable cost savings (and quality improvements!). If your school purchases office supplies from an education consortium, contact them for more information.
If you do have to pay more, can these extra costs can be absorbed by savings in your disposal costs through recycling or income you receive from any materials or "recycling credits"? For information on recycled products, call the Waste Watch Wasteline.
However you decide to tackle your waste problem, unless everyone knows about it, it's unlikely to succeed and become part of everyday school life. The key is to publicise your efforts and get your message across in a lively, interesting way. Capturing people's imagination - not easy with something as unappealing as waste? Think again! Rubbish provides an armoury of materials and ideas to stimulate our minds. The more interesting your ideas, the more likely to capture the attention of local media which can help recruit your community to the cause. These ideas may help to get you started:
Stunts are guaranteed to get pupils and staff to sit up and notice. Build a waste sculpture in school reception starting with just one item of rubbish and adding items each day until the sculpture is finished and with that, launch your scheme. Or, build "rubbish mountains" out of shoes, books or spectacles!
Competitions are good ways to get people motivated, local businesses may even donate prizes. Ideas could include: designing posters and logos, writing poems, limericks and essays, designing and decorating recycling bins. Perhaps you could design a leaflet or poster for a new recycling scheme being run by the council?
Draw up a "Waste Charter" for the school containing ten things that your school will do over the next year to cut down on waste. Publicise it throughout the school, to parents and to the local media.
Invite Cycler, the rapping recycled robot to your school. Cycler's songs and dances involve the whole audience in an entertaining show about waste reduction, re-use and recycling. Local media often attend to take photos. Contact Waste Watch for details of how to book a Cycler visit for your school.
(see Section Three for more ideas)
Getting people motivated is one thing, keeping them interested and making sure that things don't fizzle out is another. This does depend on commitment right from the top of the school i.e. the Headteacher and Governors, the caretaker and preferably all the staff. This will also create continuity when staff and pupils move on.
It's also important that you measure your success and publicise this. Telling people how much you've recycled will really spur people on. Measure your progress and set new targets. Why not co-ordinate your efforts through the creation of a committee made up of staff and pupils?
Don't forget to tell us! Waste Watch wants to monitor schools' success in waste reduction and recycling so we can see how well this guide works and what else schools need to start reducing and recycling waste. See Section Four for contacts for more information or call the Waste Watch Wasteline to discuss any of the issues raised in this guide.