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The NEWF has coordinated two successful Landfill Open Days during 2009, at Clarence Valley and Richmond Valley Council Waste Management Centres, with the focus on school participation. Each event included a range of educational activities and substantial local Council participation.
The aim of the Landfill Open Days was to educate the students about their local waste facility, providing an experiential learning experience.
By providing an organised day of information and educational activities the following objectives were able to be met:
• Introduce and inform school students and their teachers about the value of waste minimisation with the focus on reducing, reusing, recycling and resource recovery;
• Enable young people to see first hand the environmental outcome of their waste
separation efforts;
• Demonstrate the problems caused by contamination in recycling;
• Reinforce the importance of waste minimisation and good landfill management for the environment and future generations.
Namoona Landfill Open Day (RVC)
A school open day was held at the Namoona Landfill at Casino on Tuesday 12th May 2009 to provide the opportunity for students from Richmond Valley Council schools to experience resource recovery and waste management first hand and to provide them with an insight into the facilities and waste minimisation activities carried out in their local area.
Tour Summary
70 Yr 4 students from Casino Primary School and 40 Yr 2 students from Casino West Public School, attended the ‘Trip to the Tip’ tour. A two hour tour session was conducted with each school.The tour involved the following:
1. Welcome and OH&S brief from RVC Waste Services and NEWF staff.
2. A guided tour of the site including domestic recycling, green waste, building waste and scrap metal waste, engine oil, battery and tyre recycling areas and a demonstration of the waste trucks and other equipment.
3. Performance by the ‘Living Green’ with the Green House Waste Education Unit with a focus on waste avoidance through low waste lunches and eco-shopping, reuse, diverting food waste from landfill by composting and separating recyclables to keep them in the resource loop.
4. Each school group made a ‘pledge’ to live more sustainably and to assist in minimising waste at school. They were then provided with a pledge certificate and photograph to take back to school along with a resource bag. All teachers were provided with a comprehensive teaching resource pack including the new “Living Green in Your Green House’ lesson plans.
6. Teachers and students were asked to complete and return an evaluation to the NEWF Education Project Coordinator.
Evaluation Summary
Feedback from the teaching staff indicated that the Landfill Open Day program, continues to achieve its objectives. It was noted that the program developed students’ knowledge and understanding by building on what they already knew, and by providing simple easily understood actions, which they could take to achieve waste minimisation outcomes.
Teachers were able to identify ways in which they would be able to integrate information and resources provided during the tour into continued classroom learning.
The students from Casino West School were younger than those who normally participate in the open day but teaching staff confirmed that the tour was suitable for the students and that the delivery of information had been pitched adequately to ensure that students were engaged and that their knowledge and awareness was increased. Feedback from other students indicated that the program had successfully engaged them and provided an experiential learning experience, which had increased their level of awareness and enabled them to identify actions, which they could take to avoid and reduce waste sent to landfill.
External evaluation of the program was received during a visit of the Green House to the Beef Week Festival, two weeks after the tour. A number of students who had attended came to visit the Green House again, to reinforce their learning and share their recent experiences of waste. A significant number of parents came to ask for advice and stated that they had begun making changes to reduce waste at home as a result of their children attending the LOD.Grafton Recycling Centre and Landfill Open Day (CVC)
A school open day was held at the Grafton Landfill & Waste Transfer/Recycling Centre on 19th November 2009. The ‘Trip to the Tip’ provided the opportunity for students from Grafton Public School to experience resource recovery and waste management first hand, giving them an insight into the facilities and waste minimisation activities carried out in their local area.Tour Summary
110 Yr 5 students from Grafton Public School attended the ‘Trip to the Tip’ tour. The tour involved two sessions lasting approximately 2hrs (plus travel time of 45mins between the school and the venues) with half the students attending in the morning and the other half in the afternoon.
The tour involved the following:
• A visit to the Grafton Waste Transfer & Recycling station where students were given a welcome and overview by a councillor from Clarence Valley Council. They then had a guided tour around the Recycle Centre and were given a demonstration of the processing and baling of paper and cardboard collected for recycling and were informed about how the conveyor and separation process works.
• A visit to the Grafton Regional Landfill where students were given a bus tour of the site under the guidance of the site manager, which included a visit to the tip face to see the compactor in action. They also toured the old landfill cells, saw the irrigation pipes and leachate ponds and the metal, construction & demolition and mattress piles.
• A performance by the ‘Living Green’ with the Green House Waste Education Unit with waste experts’ PET and Secondhand Rose, with a focus on waste avoidance through low waste lunches as well as eco-shopping, reuse ideas, diverting food waste from landfill by composting and separating recyclables to keep them in the resource loop.
• Each school group made a ‘pledge’ to live more sustainably and to assist in minimising waste at school. They were then provided with a pledge certificate and photograph to take back to school along with a reusable bag. All teachers were provided with a comprehensive teaching resource pack including the new “Living Green in Your Green House’ lesson plans.
• Teachers and students were asked to complete and return an evaluation to the NEWF Education Project Coordinator.
Evaluation Summary
Feedback from the teaching staff indicated that the design and implementation of the LOD program, continues to be successful at achieving its objectives. In particular it was noted that the program developed student’s knowledge and understanding by building on what they already knew, by being fun and interactive and by providing simple easily understood actions, which they could use to achieve waste minimisation outcomes. Teachers attending the morning session were disappointed that they the Green House performance had to be cut short to stay on schedule for the afternoon session.
Feedback from the students indicated that the program had successfully engaged the majority and provided an experiential learning experience, which had increased their level of awareness and enabled them to identify actions, which they themselves could take to avoid and reduce waste sent to landfill. Most of the students indicated that they would like to learn more.
Click here to see what happened in 2008.
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