Initiating Green Projects
Sep
27
Schools have a role to play in the wider community and can lead by example. The ultimate goal of greening schools is to get the children involved in projects that help build a greener community. If the school uses renewable energy and recycles and composts food waste, it shows children, parents, and other people in the community green living in action.
The best projects are ones that everyone in the school from the youngest and least academically minded to the brightest and most practically minded can get involved in. Go for a range of projects if possible that allow everyone the chance to play their part.
Ideas for projects can come from the things you do at home or from looking at what other schools are doing — check the nearby ‘Getting green ideas from other schools‘ sidebar for some examples and browse the Internet for more suggestions. Don’t forget to ask the children for their ideas as well.
The kinds of projects running around the country range from recycling and composting schemes to worm farming and vegetable production for the school canteen, and mentoring schemes where older pupils go into primary schools to teach younger pupils about the environment. The following sections focus on ways to make any school greener.
The school saves money by producing some of its own food; the children learn about food, organic production, local and seasonal food, and the link between the land and what ends up on their plates; children and teachers benefit from getting exercise outdoors; and everyone is more likely to eat their greens because they are proud of having grown them themselves.
Introducing green school lunches
School lunches are a controversial issue as the government worries about the rising levels of childhood obesity and celebrity chefs try to raise the standard of the food served in schools. If you’re concerned about the quality of food your child gets in school try persuading the headteacher and the cooks that the food should be as green as possible. Much seasonal food can be bought locally rather than imported, thereby promoting green living on a number of fronts.
School administrators have very little money to spend on school meals so they will be resistant to changes that cost more money. Check with your local suppliers and go to the head teacher with the figures on the best deal you can negotiate. If the school can’t go green in terms of food suggest a vegetable garden or give your children green packed lunches.
Visiting the local landfill site
It may seem like a strange way to spend a day out, but taking children to a landfill site — basically a big hole in the ground — to see the reality of waste management can have a big impact on their habits. If children can see how much waste is produced in their own small area and get a concept of how waste piles up in all the similar sites around the country they are more likely to see why the UK can’t go on managing its waste in that way.
Nearly three-quarters of the waste generated by UK households goes to landfill sites, but the UK is running out of suitable holes in the ground to use for landfill and needs to persuade everyone to reduce the waste they produce and reuse and recycle as much as possible.
Help children identify things that could have been reused, repaired, or recycled. Explain how long it takes various items they see to decompose and what if any toxic chemicals are put into the ground in the process. Then discuss the various other options for getting rid of and reducing the waste to a minimum in the first place. From the landfill site, go to the local authority domestic recycling facility and show the children what happens to the stuff sorted and processed there. Being on site gives children a much clearer picture which they then take home and discuss with parents and friends.
If you can’t arrange landfill site visits because your local facility managers can’t allow it, or your school’s staff feel there are too many health and safety concerns, try the next best thing and think about arranging a visit to
Other green projects in your area may also be willing to help. You’ll find information from your local authority and the Internet.
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