All Saints Catholic School in Barking and Dagenham started the Action on Waste Project in November 2008 with minimal paper recycling in some classrooms. By June 2009 they had achieved a 25.41% reduction in the amount of waste produced by the school.

What is Action on Waste?

Action on Waste is a 3 stage process that empowers student volunteers to create environmental change within their school and local community to reduce their waste, increase recycling and raise environmental awareness.

Actions

The All Saint’s Action Team, made up of 15 enthusiastic students, spent six months working hard to promote and implement actions to reduce the amount of waste produced in the school.

Amongst other things, the group set up a paper recycling scheme for each classroom, held a school wide Green Day to raise money for recycling bins and set up an impressive display board to tell the whole school about the project. I

Successes

1. 25.41% reduction in the amount of waste produced by the school.
2. 3.857 tonnes of waste being diverted from landfill per year. This translates to a saving of 1.06 tonnes of kgsCO2/year. 
3. Bronze and Silver Eco-Schools Awards achieved.

What did students say about the project?

Q. What do you feel you learnt by being part of the team?

A. That recycling is easy to do; you just need to make an effort. Year 10 student.

Q. Have you changed any habits at school since taking part in the project?

A. I used to put my water bottle in the bin now I reuse the bottle! Year 7 student.

Q. Have you changed any habits at home since taking part in the project?

A. My family has started to recycle more and more stuff other than paper. Year 7 student.

Want to get involved?

Contact us at schools@globalactionplan.org.uk.