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The NEWF has coordinated two successful Landfill Open Days during 2008, 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 children 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; and
· Reinforce the importance of waste minimisation and good landfill management for the environment and future generations.
School open days were held at the Evans Head Transfer Station on Mon 5th May and Tues 6th May 2008 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 incite into the facilities and waste minimisation activities carried out in their local area.
Tour Summary
180 students from Evans Head k-12 School and Coraki Primary School attended the ‘Trip to the Waste Transfer Station’ tour. Two tour sessions were conducted on Mon 5th (one morning session and another in the afternoon) and a morning only session was held on Tues 6th May. Each session ran for approximately 1.5hrs.
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 of the Green House mobile waste education unit with a focus on waste free school lunches and how to divert food/organic waste from landfill.
4. To celebrate International Composting Awareness Week students were given a demonstration of how to set up and manage a compost bin and a worm farm. Each school received a compost bin, worm farm and worms, provided by Richmond Valley Council.
5. 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.
6. Teachers and students were asked to complete and return an evaluation to the NEWF Education Project Coordinator for collation.Only 15% of student and teacher evaluation forms were returned. The lack of representative data makes it difficult to determine whether the objectives of the tour have been met
Student feedback indicated that a lower than usual number of students (54%) enjoyed the tour, in comparison to the feedback from previous tours to the landfill. This may be related to the less extensive range of facilities available for the students to see.
It was also noted that providing worm farms, worms and compost bins to the schools appears to have resulted in significant interest, with many of the students stating that this was the best aspect of the tour and that worm farming is a waste reduction action that they would participate in at school.
The feedback from students indicated that some of the simple messages delivered in the form of ‘interesting waste facts’ had increased their awareness and understanding.
The ‘Trip to the Tip’ school open day was held at the Grafton Landfill & Waste Transfer/Recycling Centre on 11th November 2008. 65students and teachers from Gillwinga Public School took the opportunity to experience resource recovery and waste management first hand, giving them an incite into the facilities and waste minimisation activities carried out in their local area.
The tour included:
· A visit to the Grafton Waste Transfer & Recycling station where students were given a welcome and overview by the Mayor followed by a demonstration of the separation and baling of recyclable paper and cardboard and a tour of the green waste processing area.
· 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 new cell to see the compactor in action and how much waste had been land filled in just one day. They also toured the old cells, saw the irrigation pipes and leachate ponds and the metal, construction & demolition and mattress piles.
· A performance of the Green House mobile waste education unit with a focus on waste free lunches and how to divert food/organic waste from landfill.
· Displays on ‘Smart Shopping’ and how to compost using a worm farm
· 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.65% of the students and teachers completed & returned the evaluation forms
· Teachers Evaluation – indicated that the trip effectively achieved the objectives outlined earlier. The organisation of the tour was rated as ‘good to excellent’ and the duration of the tour was considered ‘appropriate’. The effectiveness of the tour information and activities at highlighting ways to reduce waste and provide an experiential learning experience was rated as ‘very good to excellent’ with the only exception being the morning tour of the recycling centre, which was adversely affected by excessive noise and interrupted by rain. The fact that the conveyor was not working also impacted on the effectiveness of the recycling centre tour. Teachers stated that information and resources from the tour would be integrated into classroom learning and that recycling of paper would be continued/introduced to the classroom. The Green House performance and displays and the tour of the landfill were considered to be the best aspects of the ‘Trip to the Tip’.
· Student Evaluation – 86% stated that they enjoyed the tour and 78% stated that they would like to learn more about waste. The Green House performance and the trip around the landfill were considered to be the best aspects of the tour. Experiencing what happens at the recycle centre and finding out about reusing waste were also popular. The ‘bad smell’ was commented on as the least favourable aspect of the tour and a few students also disliked hearing of the negative aspects of land filling i.e. pollution. The most important things they learnt were: to separate recycling from waste by putting it in the right bin; to reduce, reuse & avoid waste; that leachate is a problem; and how what ends up in the red waste bin goes to landfill. The actions they intended to take back and implement at home and at school included: to recycle by putting in the right bin; compost food scraps; to put waste in the red bin and not to litter; to reuse plastic containers for their lunch.
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