Canning our bad behaviour

It's an icky, dirty, messy job, but someone's got to do it. That ‘someone' is a group of seven clean, green Otumoetai College students who hope to improve the recycling habits of their school, the community and eventually New Zealand.

Otumoetai College's environmental committee's three-year plan to slash waste in their school is well underway after winning a set of purpose-built, stainless steel recycling bins designed to hold beverage containers.

Otumoetai College environmental committee Grace Choi, Shelby Bell, Ayla Wesley, Mizuki Matsumura, Carlea Rameka and Knoah Saunders. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

Created by Tauranga-based environmental education trust EERST, the competition asked students to prove they were showing initiative to reduce waste in order to receive the bins.

Year 11 student Grace Choi says the school is committed to waste minimisation, with daily recycling initiatives in place.

'It's important to recycle at school because it's our environment and our identity.”

Grace says the first step is to try and change their schoolmates' attitude of recycling.

'If we get the school involved then the community will get involved, including the intermediate and wider Otumoetai area.

'Our future goals are to expand to the community and eventually all of NZ will follow.”

The beverage containers will be paid for by the annual Keep NZ Beautiful Beverage Container Recycling Community Grants Programme, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation.

Teacher Desirree Brennan says the school's bins arrive in the second week of Term 3.

'We'll be placing one in the main area of the canteen where a lot of our beverage containers are and probably one on the field.”

Desirree says the school's grounds team has taken care of the recycling for a long time, which is why it's important the students have a bigger responsibility in the school's waste system.

'It's not really about now, it's about the future. As adults we can only do so much, but the students are the ones who will keep going, so I'm super proud that we've got a group together that's going to start taking those steps.”

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