[Music playing]

[Text on screen – Location: Coledale Public School]

[Text on screen – Coledale Public School are engaging the creative minds of students while reducing waste through a textiles and plastics up-cycling initiative.]

Bernadette Stephens, Principal

Environmental Education is really important at Coledale Public School, it’s interwoven with all of the key learning areas. And parents and community are very involved.

Tracey Gould, Teacher

At our school, our students are really aware about sustainable practice. The Sustainable Schools Grant came up last year and so that's how connecting threads was sort of born at our school.

[Text on screen – Students are creating large scale artworks and sensory aids using recycled materials with help from the Sustainable Schools Grant.]

Colleen Lux, P&C Member

We knew we had a massive waste stream of school uniform; people buy a secondhand and give them back. But kids clothes often have a usable life. So the idea of upcycling our uniforms grew into Connecting Threads. So we came up with an idea of how we could do something with that way. So that was creative, and a skill building activity for the students, and that had a bigger purpose.

[Text on screen – It’s estimated that in NSW alone almost 80% of unwanted textiles end up in landfill.]

Tracey Gould, Teacher

The sustainable schools grant really was instrumental in providing the finance for us to fulfill the project.

Imogen Ross, Artist and Educator

Colleen who runs the P&C got in touch with me, and she said, 'Look, I know that you run an art school in our local community, and I know that you work in sustainability, would you come to our school and help us run this project?' And I was like 'You beauty! Yes, I would love to do that'.

Noni, Student

So there's so much waste, especially textile waste, that's being thrown away.

Finn, Student

So people bought them in, and we cut it into strips, we cut it into circles, and then we’re reusing it in a different way.

Imogen Ross, Artist and Educator

We've made what we call the reading nook out of 24 by wheels. And we've created a very special place for the kids to sit and read books.

Noni, Student

I learned so many things. We made little pillows and I learned how to stitch.

Finn, Student

It’s stuffed with some lavender in it, and then it has the little fiddly things and it's good for people with dementia.

[Text on screen – Location: Coledale Hospital]

Tracey Gould, Teacher

A lot of them have older grandparents and some people that they knew that have dementia.

Colleen Lux, P&C Member

I've really been interested in connecting our school to the hospital in some way.

Laura Handley, Diversional Therapist

I was contacted by Colleen and invited to be a part of the Sustainable Schools project and in partnership started from there. I'm really passionate about seeing people with dementia live well. So it's really important that we educate the next generation. The students have been making some small sensory pillows and some sculptures for our garden out of repurposed plastics. Sensory aids can help in a whole heap of ways: bringing out positive emotions; provide a buffer for stress; improving mood; and improving someone's communication.

Amy Geddes, P&C Member

They knew they were making the pillow for someone else.

Bernadette Stephens, Principal

Empowering your children has been a really important part of the whole project. This has given them an opportunity to do something.

Laura Handley, Diversional Therapist

The students have been able to create things and it gives them a sense of purpose that they're helping people in their own home community. They have been able to benefit our patients as well by gifting them with these sensory items. But it's also helped the environment by reusing and repurposing all these materials that otherwise would have gone to landfill.

Noni, Student

I think it really helps for children to learn about this but it’s also amazingly for the earth.

Alice, Student

This is the only planet in our solar system that we can reach that has water and plant life.

Mabel, Student

And so we just need to take care of this planet.

Amy Geddes, P&C Member

All the kids have just been so enthusiastic.

Imogen Ross, Artist and Educator

The students are really proud of what they've done.

Tracey Gould, Teacher

They're not just doing it for fun, but they're actually doing something that's going to help somebody else.

Alice, Student

I think it's really fun and it gives you a whole different perspective.

Amy Geddes, P&C Member

I'm immensely proud of all of the kids who have been involved. I can't even describe how it's made me feel. Honestly, I'm okay every Tuesday and Wednesday just feeling on top of the world.

[Upbeat music]

[Video – External footage of Kooringal High School]

[Text on screen – Kooringal High School are turning plastic waste into functional items in a recycling initiative they call ‘Precious Plastics’.]

[Video – Students carrying boxes of plastic milk bottle lids. Bottle lids being cleaned and collected from the school’s café.]

Austin Teakel, TAS Teacher

Precious plastics is a bit of a world-wide movement. We’ve incorporated it here in Kooringal High School through the collection, repurposing and recreating of plastic products into usable daily items.

Andrew Upton, Head Teacher TAS

Recycling plastics became a critical need for Kooringal High School through identifying the waste product that was coming out of 3D printing, laser-cutting and vacuum forming and there was no real output or viable place to send it other than landfill.

[Video of plastic being laser cut and the remnants of plastic waste. Students sorting plastic bottle lids by colour.]

Austin Teakel

We noticed that many other streams of plastic were being generated within our school, and we endeavored to try and repurpose as much of that as possible into a material that our students could use in creative ways.

[Video of shredded plastic before it is put in the sheet press. Students holding the formed sheets of plastic.]

Josh Larwood, Student Support Officer

So I am the collection plan for the milk lids, sometimes we get single milk lids brought in, bags, garbage bags. When I saw some kids with milk lids I was like ‘Hey what are you going to do with those, be part of the project, get on board. So between a few things of social media, the posters and then word of mouth, we we’re able to get everyone on board and as soon as you get a couple they all like to jump on board too. Yeah, it's really exciting to see what we can now use them for and the projects we’re going to make.

[Video of students emptying bag of bottle lids into larger collection box. Students sorting bottle lids by colour.]

Austin Teakel

We've been able to produce many different items ranging from hanging pendant lamps, recycled wallets, plant pots for cacti, signs, keychains, key rings, carabiners. We try to leave the options open for students of what they can produce and allow their creativity to really shine through with how they use this new material and ultimately making ethical decisions moving forward.

[Video of the various items that students have made from the sheets of recycled plastic. Pendant lamps, plant pots for cacti, signs, carabiners. Student wearing earrings made from recycled plastic.]

Susha, Student

So my project was to essentially make something that was marketable and I can make money out of, so I've decided to make phone cases made out of recycled plastics.

[Video of student hold sheet made from recycled plastic. Design software footage showing 3D dimensions of proposed mobile phone case product made from recycled plastic.]

Helen Schmetzer, Principal

The Sustainable Schools Grant allowed us to purchase the shredder, which means we can chip the plastics and that allows the students to repeat the process on a much bigger scale than we were able to do without that grant.

[Video of TAS teacher wearing PPE putting plastic bottle lids in the shredder. Students looking at shredded plastic pieces.]

Susha

So to make this sheet, we use the plastic milk bottles, which were shredded and they were put into a sheet press which were melted down and put into a uniform sheet. And I'll use this to create my phone cases by putting the 3D printed version into the vacuum form with this on top and it'll melt through and form the shape that I need.

[Video of students using sheet press. Video of laser cutting cutting plastic sheet into desired shape.]

Cash, Student

I've made this double fold wallet that can fold in on itself and it's got three little pouches in there. And so that's all made out of recycled plastic.

[Video of students holding and discussing wallet and phone case products made from recycled plastics on site in the school’s TAS department.]

Helen Schmetzer, Principal

So this project has said lots of positive benefits for our students. Probably the first one is increasing awareness about what plastics are doing to our environment. It's really engaged them because it's an authentic learning experience. You can see that they're up and about and they're keen to be involved. And then again, it's branched out into other key learning areas too, because there's lots of other faculties that are talking about the project and what impact that's going to have so not just in that TAS world but across lots of KLAs.

[Video of students scooping shredded plastics and placing them in the sheet press trays. Students clipping the sheet trays closed and then placing them in the sheet press. Teacher demonstrating how to use a 3D printer. Close up of laser cutter cutting sheet made from recycled plastic.]

Susha

It feels good to know that I'm making a small difference out there and helping the environment and make the world a more sustainable place.

Cash

So the more we can do to focus on making our materials made out of those recycled things, the more we can do to make everything out of recycled plastics, and so we don't have to make any more.

[Students holding different jars of different colours of recycled plastic chips. Students holding sheets made from recycled plastics and discussing how they will design a product using the sheets.]

Helen Schmetzer, Principal

It makes me super proud as principal of this school to have a project like this, particularly for a school in a regional area. It's amazing for us to have this opportunity.

[Inspiring music]

[Text on screen – Erskine Park High School 45 kilometres west of the Sydney CBD. Current enrolments 1011]

[Text on screen – Ground zero for the war on school waste.

Video – Sped up time lapse of people working with garbage bins, tarps and plastic bins set up around a covered outdoor learning area.]

[And HQ of the planet protectors – a cip of students walking in wearing protective gear including overalls, gloves and protective glasses. Their names are Sarah, Lara, Alex, Zoe, Sarah, Ali, Hamdan, Kirk, Abdullah, Joey and Bailey]

Zoe

The idea of planet protectors is to reduce the waste that comes from the school and to get rid of it in the right way.

[Students start placing the waste on the ground in the covered outdoor area.]

[Today is D-Day for the planet protectors who are undertaking the first ever waste audit at Erskine Park High School – Nat (Acting school principal) is talking to the planet protectors]

[Waste minimisation measures in place at Erskine Park High School include:

• Return and earn bottle and cans program
• Ersko cleanup card – reward card system
• Recycling bins in the playground area
• Green waste to compost for school gardens (image of ducks among trees)
• Food scraps for animals on school farm (image of hens).]

Nat Doidge (Acting School Principal)

Now we've already made lots of progress down this track, certainly separating the bottles and the glass. As a consequence of that, taking that return and earn, we've managed to replace plastic straws in our cafeteria, our cafe, with paper straws.

[Text on screen – Return and Earn introduced in early 2019. The school produces 39,000 empty containers annually worth $3,900 if all are returned.]

Separating out our green waste means that the compost that we're producing down on the farm now has green waste from the playground and that's being used in our gardens. And certainly, our waste from the kitchens is also being used to feed the chickens and the ducks and things down there. So, we've already made huge changes within our school.

[Clip of chickens strutting in the school’s coop. A gloved hand tosses fruit and bread scraps. Text on screen – The NSW Department of Education is responsible for over 250 schools that have agriculture plots.]

What's happening today is we are going to do some waste sorting; we're going to find out exactly what ours’ looks like.

[Image of labels being added to bins and close-up of some of the waste including paper cups and plastic.]

Teacher

To start with, we'll sort into those categories. So, plastics, glass, metals, paper, food, and all those ones, anything else, we're going to put into the tubs stick on that blue tarp over there.

[Sped up time-lapse clip of students sorting the waste.]

[Text on-screen – Students are sorting 2,400 litres of rubbish that has been collected in one and a half days at the school.]

[Rubbish is sorted into categories:

• plastics
• glass
• metals
• paper and cardboard
• food
• garden organics
• e-waste
• hazardous
• other.]

[Efficient sorting minimises waste that goes to landfill.]

Bailey

It's just crazy how much rubbish just comes out of this school and most of it goes to landfill. So, that's crazy.

Alexander

I joined Planet Protectors last year when the group started. I saw a lot of posters advertising things about how wildlife were losing their habitats due to waste, how much waste was going to the ocean. So, I joined so that I would make a difference.

Sarah Kim

We're learning that different things can be recycled, and we should be more aware.

Bailey

You don't realise how much of this there is because one person only needs three, four pieces of rubbish and it all comes together to make this.

[Erskine Park High School produces 23kg of food waste per day.]

Alexander

The biggest surprise to me was the amount of food waste because people that are less fortunate don't get enough food. And from other people who are more fortunate, and lucky, for them to waste it, I find it disgusting.

[Video of students sorting the last of the waste]

[Text on screen – With sorting complete, individual categories of rubbish are weighed and recorded. At audit completion after 2 hours of sorting 2,400 litres of waste this (one tub) is the only waste that cannot be recycled and will go to landfill. 180 litres – 13% of the total amount of rubbish – will go to landfill and the majority of this is used coffee cups.]

[Text on screen – Audit results also indicated that on average each student generates 20kg of waste per year, and 12kg of this is potentially recyclable, 4.5 kg of waste could be reuced/avoided.]

Alexander

I think many schools around New South Wales should get involved because, with all of us combined, we can make one big difference and change the world. And we can save the planet one wrapper at a time.

[And the next planet protectors project? Spread the learnings from the waste audit to all students at the school... as well as joining Erskine Park High School up to a coffee cup recycling program.]

[Music fades out.]

[End of transcript.]