It’s cash for trash

Luca Dekic and Max Feldmann are getting to grips with recycling.

Cambridge Primary School decided it was time to take out the trash – in a much smarter way.

And now the school has been given a financial boost to keep the work going.

“Seventy-five per cent of our current waste goes to landfill… we would like to ultimately see this drop to 20 per cent if not less,” said teacher and Enviroschools leader Briar Cooper.

She and the school’s student environmental group, the Kakariki Crusaders, have won a $7500 grant from Countdown’s 2023 Growing for Good fund to improve the school’s waste disposal system.

Briar Cooper – Teacher Briar Cooper is spearheading an initiative to reduce waste at Cambridge Primary School.

“We have a lot of waste and what we’re finding is… there’s just a lot of contamination,” Briar said.

Grant money will be used to source colour coded paper, plastics and general waste bins for each classroom and set up an outdoor recycling station.

Waipā company Coops Construction is chipping in with labour and helping to source materials.

Students will supervise bin emptying to ensure everything goes in the right place and food waste will go to an existing worm farm.

The initiative comes on the back of a school-wide push to raise awareness around waste reduction.

The school last week hosted an e-waste collection run by Rotary Urban Miners and Geoff Bentley from TechLeap ran workshops on e-waste dismantling, so senior students could unscrew laptops, take out the waste and identify materials inside.

Briar hopes the new recycling station will be up and running by the end of this year.

Cambridge Primary was one of 10 New Zealand schools to win Countdown Growing for Good grants to address climate change and boost sustainability.