BVSC Let’s Get it Sorted Waste Program
Bega Valley Shire Council’s ‘Let’s Get it Sorted’
Waste Education Program
Schools across the Bega Valley Shire are being offered the opportunity to participate in the ‘Let’s get it Sorted’ waste education program over the next three years. The program is being run by the Bournda Environmental Education Centre and is fully funded by the Bega Valley Shire Council.
The program includes –
- two waste audits of playground rubbish bins (before and after)
- student / teacher support to create an action plan
- provision of recycling and green waste bins to the school
- tour of the Central Waste Facility and the Merimbula Organics Processing Facility
- an opportunity for students to share and celebrate their success as a group
- ongoing support by BEEC
The program helps students to re-think what we call ‘waste’ and empowers them to be the change makers at their school. The aim of the program is to reduce the amount of waste that schools send to landfill and to help educate school communities about the issues surrounding waste and its management.
This program is a follow on from the 2019 – 2022 program. Click the button below for more information about the 2019 – 2022 waste schools.
Please contact Bournda on 02 64945009 to express an interest for 2024.
2022 / 2023 Let’s Get it Sorted Schools
Eden Public School – The Green Gang
Term 4 2022
Eden Primary School’s Green Gang have been working hard to continue to reduce the amount of waste the school sends to landfill. They first completed the Let’s Get is Sorted program in Term 1 2020, creating an educational video, introducing FOGO, compostable containers in their canteen, paper recycling in their classrooms and bin monitors in the playground. In term 4 2023, they have once again taken on the waste challenge with a new group of Green Gang students. They conducted a waste audit and discovered there was still a lot of soft plastics going to landfill and that the new FOGO changes meant the canteen containers were now also going to landfill. The Green Gang decided to introduce soft plastic collection at the school. Just as they were about to implement the collection, they were faced with the additional real-life challenge of the ceasing of soft plastic collection by Woolworths and Coles. Students and staff have faced these challenges with a positive and proactive approach. The Green Gang have changed their focus to educating other classes about reducing soft plastic use and how to correctly sort playground waste including canteen containers. They are working with the canteen to come up with ways of reducing landfill from the canteen amongst the Fogo changes. Amazing work Green Gang and staff in a challenging environment of changes!
Wolumla Public School – The Bin Busters Deluxe
Term 1 2023
The new cohort of Bin Buster’s at Wolumla Public School – The Bin Buster’s Deluxe are continuing the schools war on waste. This year’s group of stage 2 students have continued the hard work put in place by staff and students in 2020 when they ran their first waste audit. A waste audit on Feb 8, 2023 showed the school has made a huge reduction of waste to landfill since 2020 with contamination rates in both FOGO and Recycling down to just 1%- fantastic work Bin Busters! The focus for the current Bin Busters has been to reduce the amount of soft plastic coming to school and to continue to educate the school community about the importance of sorting our waste. The school, along with BEEC, ran a beeswax wrap making workshop where every student went home with a new reusable wrap to use in their lunchboxes. The Bin Busters also created a video to promote their messages around waste. Well done Bin Busters Deluxe!
Tathra Public School – The Tathra Trash Trackers
Term 2 2023
Tathra Public School has an amazing group of students called the Tathra Trash Trackers. This team has been actively reducing the amount of waste being sent to landfill since 2019. This year’s Trash Trackers are made up of a great bunch of year 4/5 students and supported by the leadership of the year six environment minister and team. The Trash Trackers conducted a waste audit on May 10th 2023 to investigate their efforts around waste at the school. They found there was still some contamination in the playgrounds bins and learnt that this is an ongoing challenge and needs continued motivation and education! The Trash Trackers were also interested to see what was happening with waste around the school so audited another mixed red landfill bin. They discovered there was a lot of recyclable material from classrooms ending up in landfill.
The Trash Trackers decided to make an educational video about waste to share with all classes. The team is also working to bring back trash free Tuesdays with great pizes for waste wise students! They are taking the initiative to collect paper recycling in the classrooms and are planning to recycle their food waste at school when their new compost tumblers arrive! These are being purchased with their school waste grant funds. The Trash Trackers are also excited to be visiting the Bega Valley Shire’s Central Waste Facility later this term and learn more about waste management in our local area. The Trash Trackers will conduct a waste audit during term 3 and we are all excited to see the results of their hard work! Well done Tathra Trash Trackers!
Pambula Public School – The Pambula Planet Protectors
Term 3 2023
The Pambula Planet Protectors are a group of students that make up the school’s Student Representative Council. These students from years 2-6 are a motivated group, passionate about making a difference in their school to help the planet. They conducted a waste audit on the school’s playground waste early in term 3 and found that contamination across the bins was high and that that there was a lot of soft plastics coming to the school and ending up in landfill. They are using their school waste grant funds to set up new waste stations at the school, purchase paper recycling bins in all the classrooms and office spaces and designing some amazing looking bin stickers to decorate and educate students about what goes in what bin. The Pambula Planet Protectors visited the Merimbula Organics and Central Waste Facility to learn all about waste management in the Bega Valley. They are bringing the knowledge and inspiration to make change back to their school and we can’t wait to see the difference it makes in the amount of waste the school sends to landfill. Fantastic work Planet Protectors!
Merimbula Public School – The Merimbula Waste Warriors
Term 4 2023
Merimbula Public School’s Waste Warriors are a committed group of students who have been looking after the planet by reducing waste at Merimbula Public School. These students sort contamination and ensure waste is disposed of correctly from the school eating areas. They have been working with dedicated teachers from the school as well as Bournda EEC to teach the whole school community about the importance of sorting waste correctly. The Waste Warriors have been planning and facilitating games for the younger students and designing new bin stickers. The group are looking forward to visiting BVSC’s Central Waste Facility in term 1 2024 and continuing their war on waste through further initiatives at the school.
Lumen Christi Catholic College – Social Justice Advocates
Term 1 2024
Lumen Christi’s Social Justice Advocates are a dedicated group of students passionate about making change in their world and the world of others. They are taking on the war on waste this term at Lumen Christi School and are working hard to reduce the amount of contamination in the school playground bins. The school has a wonderful worm farm system, and their goal is to divert all food scraps to the worm farms and out of landfill. They are making bin stickers, rethinking their waste stations and educating the whole school community about what goes in what bin through slide shows and presentations at assembly. We look forward to seeing their successes later in the year! Well done Lumen Christi!