Green Impact Group

Thursday, 23rd May 2024 at 11:45am

Composting is the latest sustainable initiative at GBHS!

This month has seen composting become a reality at school. Thanks to the fundraising efforts from our Green Impact group, together with funding from the Waste Minimisation Fund, three bins are now installed in our orchard area at our school, nestled in amongst our citrus and feijoa trees.

More funding for a fourth bin and a part time coordinator may happen in the future as we partner with DEANZ, the organisation who run Repair Workshops around the country and composting hubs. In the meantime we are working with Ecomatters who are feeding the compost by bringing in green waste from Bidfresh in Rosebank Road, waste that would otherwise be going to landfill.

The carbon cycle boxes also provide other opportunities to connect with our food technology and science curriculums with experiments in microbiology and teaching students how to garden and grow organic food.

Students in the Te Aratika satellite classes have a strong curriculum around waste practices, and are involved in the Garden to Table programme, so the compost will be beneficial for their vegetable gardens, as well as other plantings around the school.

Composting is the latest of other sustainable initiatives we have had in place for a while:

• Classroom and office paper recycling through the Paper4Trees programme
• Organics bin waste from our staffroom feeding worm bins
• Soft plastic recycling for staff and trialling soft plastic socks around school
• Battery recycling
• Regular recycling from staffroom and other departments

Now we have composting up and running, we can separate our waste around the school. Five banks of three bins are planned; one for food waste, one for recycling, and one for rubbish. This is a concept we have been working to for some time, and as Auckland Council puts initiatives in place towards Waste Free 2040, Green Bay High School can be proud that we are dealing responsibly with our waste.

If you would like to be part of the GBHS Green Impact group, please contact Fiona Drummond via email.