The Waste report provides information about the amount of waste generated at your school. This can help reduce operational costs and may inform ideas to reduce or recycle your waste.

To learn more about whole of government contracts, billing, and ideas for schools and classrooms, please see the 'Need further support' below.

Data Source: The data is extracted from NSW Treasury data. For more information regarding billing please see the resources section below.

Designed for: Principals, school leaders, teachers, school admin managers and asset services officers to:

• track the amount of waste generated by a school
• understand the different types of waste generated
• compare levels of waste to the average of other similar schools
• view greenhouse gas emissions resulting from landfills.

Updated: Monthly, but with a 2-month lag on data

What is included in this report?

The waste report contains key data on the waste generated in a school including:

• Total weight (Tonnes) and costs.
• Amount of waste generated by category (General, organics, paper).
• Greenhouse gas emissions (kgCO₂-e) from waste diverted landfill.

What should I look for?

If any of your waste data is significantly higher than the previous year, or if it is much higher than the climate zone average, further investigation may be required.

How to use the report

Select a school

Use the 'Select School' slicer at the top of the report to select a school.

Information about the selected school

The tiles at the top of the report provide details about:

• the year-to-date (YTD) cost, total weight (tonnes) and emissions from landfill (kgCO₂-e).
• the number of suppliers.
• the number of students enrolled.
• the size of the school buildings (m²) (also referred to as Gross Floor Area or GFA).

Note: These details do not change as you interact with the report.

In addition to school information, there is a second row of tiles that change as you select different years or parameters:

These tiles provide:

• Total collection cost ($): including all waste charges and levies.

• Total weight (Tonnes): for all waste categories made up of general waste (wet and dry); liquid waste inc. hazardous waste and other liquid waste (not recycled); sanitary waste; construction and demolition waste; plus all recycled waste.

• Recycled weight (Tonnes): for all recycled waste made up of comingled recycling; paper and cardboard; organics, including garden and food organics; liquid waste (recycled); secure destruction, including certificates, paper and cardboard, and IT hardware and media; other (recycled) inc. batteries, e-waste, metals, plastics, rubber, and light globes.

• Landfill diversion (%): percentage of recycled weight from total weight.

• Emissions released from landfill (kgCO₂-e).

• Futile collection cost ($): when a waste collection has been attempted by the supplier, but it was unsuccessful.

Supplier information

Hover over the number of suppliers to view the name of the suppliers servicing the selected school and a split of the waste weight and cost associated with each.

Switch between cost ($) and weight (Tonnes)

Use the toggle to switch between waste cost ($) and weight (Tonnes).

View waste data in three ways

Waste generated scales to school size. To allow for a fair comparison, usage can be viewed per student or per m².

The 'Select Parameter' option allows you to switch between:

• total waste generated by your school
• waste generated per student
• waste levels by school size (which is based on the Gross Floor Area (GFA) of your school (m²).

Your selection will automatically be applied to all charts and tables.

Understanding the charts

Total cost ($) and weight (Tonnes)

Waste cost ($) and weight (Tonnes) information cards indicate the totals received in the last month and are compared to the same period last year.

Use the toggle to switch between cost ($) and weight (Tonnes).

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Emissions associated with landfills are included in the report.

Emissions released are those generated due to decomposition of material, especially organic, in landfill. These are calculated based on Australia’s National Greenhouse Accounts Factors and presented as kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO₂-e).

Equivalent car trips are emissions that have been converted into a more relatable measure represented by the equivalent number of one-way car trips from Inner Sydney High School to Broken Hill Public School.

For example, this 1,142km trip would release 207kgCO₂ if driven in an average new car. Therefore, if a school used 1,035 kgCO₂ it would be the equivalent of 5 one-way car trips from Inner Sydney High School to Broken Hill Public School.

The Equivalent Car Trips from Inner Sydney High School to Broken Hill Public School reported on the Emissions Card is a Year to Date (YTD) total, which grows throughout the year.

Emissions saved are those that have been avoided by diverting organics, paper and cardboard away from landfill.

Total weight versus the Average (Tonnes)

This chart allows you to see your school’s generation of waste compared to the average of other similar schools. It also gives a breakdown of waste types represented by the different bin lid colours.

Hover over the bars to see the exact weight of each type of waste. 

Year-to-date (YTD) Total Weight (Tonnes)

The Year-to-Date (YTD) Total Weight (Tonnes) chart shows the cumulative waste total per year. Users can compare against previous years to identify trends.

Tonnes by Waste Category

This chart shows the proportions of waste for the current year. Hover your mouse over the data points for more detail.

Click the (i) button on the top right to switch from a doughnut chart to a bar chart.

Data table

The Annual waste weight (tonnes) and cost ($) information table shows data for each waste category by month.

Note: This table adapts when different years and parameters are selected.

Scroll up and down and left and right using the scroll bars.