Schools across Brighton & Hove have been working to reduce waste through the Our City, Our World programme; a sustainability, climate change and environmental education strategy for Brighton & Hove schools.
Find out more about Our City, Our World.
West Hove Infants School recently held a clothes swap to reduce textile waste sent to landfill. The school received 36 bags of donated clothes weighing in at 176.5kg.
Through the clothes swap, nearly 120kg of clothes were rehomed, while the remaining 58.8kg was donated to local charities.
Cardinal Newman School’s eco ambassadors ran a successful Freegle event at school – supported by Cottesmore Primary School.
Together they collected 315kg of donated goods:
This represents collective savings of £157 and around 315kg of C02 emissions.
Cardinal Newman has also put together a useful ‘how to’ guide for other schools.
St Lukes Primary School conducted a week-long food waste audit to measure how much food is thrown away from school meals. The waste was separated into categories: meat option, veggie option, cooked vegetables, potatoes, salad and bread, and dessert.
The results found that cooked vegetables accounted for around half of the total waste, with pupils reporting that they preferred eating raw vegetables.
Following the audit, St Lukes Primary school will be developing a plan to reduce food waste as well as working with The Compost Club to pilot composting in schools. This will allow them to compost cooked food as well as fruit and vegetables.
Earlier this year, Goldstone Primary School launched a monthly refill shop to help parents and carers shop more sustainably and reduce single use plastic waste. More recently, a similar refill shop opened at Cardinal Newman School.
This initiative is part of the Eco Refill Shops Coastal Pilot sponsored by Pupils Profit, an enterprise based education programme which is part of the personal, social health and economic (PHSE) curriculum. There are plans to involve more schools next school year.
Councillor Lucy Helliwell, joint chair of the Children, Families & Schools Committee, said: “It’s fantastic to see children and young people taking the lead on ways to reduce waste and save resources.
“Waste processes have a significant impact on emissions and harm the environment, and we can all take actions to reduce unnecessary waste, and also save money.”
Councillor Jacob Taylor, Joint Chair of the Children, Families & Schools Committee, said: “We’re proud to support the Our City, Our World education strategy; it not only helps schools to become more sustainable but is inspiring young minds to take positive action on climate change, protect the environment and influence their local communities.”
*Source: WRAP
This story is part of our ‘Eight for Earth Day’ series, highlighting projects from the council and partners following on from Earth Day 2023. Earth Day recognises the positive actions of people making a difference to reducing the effects of climate change and restoring nature.
