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The Early Childhood Centre Waste Wise Education Project was initiated by the NEWF in May 2007 to work with a select number of Early Childhood Centres across the region, to assist and support them to reduce waste (and chemical use) by providing training and support for implementing simple waste reduction measures in their Centres. The program ran until June 2010.
The program built on existing resources already available in other regions such as the Lady Gowrie program, and on successful NEWF projects such as the Business Waste Reduction Project and the Eco-friendly Youth Project.
a. Increase awareness of waste reduction practices in childhood centres across the NEWF region.
b. Build the capacity of staff to implement sustainable waste practices through provision of a staff training program, visual waste assessment, waste management plan and in-house education programs.
c. Support the implementation of simple waste reduction measures in Early Childhood Centres.
d. Integrate sustainable waste practices into the activities provided at the Centres such as worm-farm, compost activities, songs, books etc.Thirty Nine Early Childhood Services in six Council areas took part in the Early Childhood Waste Wise Project. Three kindergarten classes and one after school care services also took part in the project. Evaluation indicates that after undertaking the program, staff had a high level of understanding, implementing routines to separate waste effectively, considerably reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill. The program supported staff to incorporate waste wise strategies into children’s learning environments and included worm farming/composting, recycling, discussions on separating waste and discussions on landfill with the children. Parents of services were also engaged in the learning processes.
:: To find out more about what the project has achieved, download the Evaluation Report here.
For further information about Waste Wise Education contact the North East Waste Forum Education Co-ordinator
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