Overton Primary School is a modern school which opened in 1973. Instead of the traditional pattern of 14 separate rooms, each having its own class teacher, there are seven large teaching bases each with two teachers sharing the class on a team-teaching basis.  In addition there is a large audio-visual room, a well equipped gymnasium/assembly hall and dining kitchen facilities. 

Overton Primary School is also a registered Eco School. Headteacher, Elizabeth Ruddy registered the school in March 2002 and the school achieved a Bronze Award in April 2004. This involved getting an environmental review of the school and setting up an eco committee of pupils and teachers, who discussed the outcomes of the review and created an action plan based on it. The eco committee then monitored and evaluated the action plan ensuring that it linked with the curriculum and involved the whole school and wider community. Finally an eco-code was written by the eco committee including statements of commitment to caring for the environment. 

Waste is one of the key topics that the Eco Schools programme can focus on. At Overton Primary School former P7 teacher, Jan Canning, contacted Inverclyde Council in order to set up recycling facilities for the school’s waste. Inverclyde Council provided the school with two 240 litre blue bins, one 1280 litre blue bin, and several ‘slim jim’ 55 litre blue bins. The Council also provided contact details for ‘Greenlight’, an organisation that works in partnership with the council, who provided the school with several white bags.

The blue bins are for cans, cardboard, paper and plastic bottles. The white bags are for additional paper. The small blue bins can be found within the school in areas such as the canteen and the staff room. The white bags are in every class room. Two pupils from each teaching base are selected to go with the janitor to empty the white bags into the larger outdoor bins. The P7’s are also given the responsibility of decanting the P1 and P2 white bags. Participation in the school recycling service is high and contamination levels are low.

In addition to this, pupils are encouraged to reuse. Inverclyde Council provides the pupils with plastic flasks that can be refilled. Pupils also reuse old posters to cover their workbooks as well as reusing various materials, such as sweetie wrappers, for arts and crafts. Teachers encourage the pupils to reduce waste by using both sides of the paper in their workbooks. 

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are principles which are taught through the school’s Environmental Studies programme and during the school’s health week. Inverclyde Council have conducted presentations within the school, teaching pupils about Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. They have also provided Waste Aware Schools stickers for the recycling bins, which have been well received by the pupils.

If you would like your school to feature as an example of best waste practice please email us a case study, preferably with some photographs, for our consideration.

Ravenscraig Primary School is a Non Denominational, Co-educational Primary School in South West Greenock attended by approximately 196 pupils. 

In 2001, 2003 and 2006, the school received Eco Schools Awards. The eco committee formed by pupils, staff and members of the community, started putting systems in place for waste segregation and promotion of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

To reduce waste the eco committee introduced the practice of only one letter being given out per family in the school, rather than to each child. Scrap paper is kept in every class to ensure that both sides are used. Furthermore the school grows its own apples which are used in the canteen, saving packaging from buying apples in the supermarket. The school has also been provided with a composter from Inverclyde Council to compost all its garden waste and some kitchen waste. (To find out more information about home composting visit the Reduce section.)

Waste is reused for arts and crafts. Refilling water bottles is also encouraged. Plastic bags are reused as bin liners throughout the school.

Inverclyde Council has provided Ravenscraig Primary School with two 240litre blue bins for recycling cans, cardboard, paper and plastic and one 240 litre brown bin for garden waste that hasn’t been composted. The classrooms have minibins that are emptied by pupils into the larger blue bins when they are full. The larger bins are emptied by the council as required.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are promoted through Waste Aware Schools posters and stickers supplied by Inverclyde Council.  In addition, guest speakers have been invited to talk to the pupils about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle from the council, WRAP and SWAG.

If you would like your school to feature as an example of best waste practice please email us a case study, preferably with some photographs, for our consideration.

Inverkeithing High School is a large secondary school in Fife, attended by approximately 1,500 pupils.  The school was awarded a prestigious Green Flag by Eco Schools in March 2007.  One of the topics they focused on to receive this award was waste.

Inverkeithing High School reduces food waste by using a wormery for composting.  The worms eat waste food and turn it into an excellent soil conditioner.  Furthermore, the school makes great efforts to reduce the amount of paper waste it creates.  Paper waste is weighed and reduction targets are set.  When written communication is necessary between teachers, email is used in order to save paper.  All classrooms have a tray of scrap paper that has been used on one side.  The pupils use the other side to take notes in class.

Reusing waste materials is also encouraged in Inverkeithing High School.  Tyres and plastic bottles have been reused in the school grounds to make a seating area and a green house.  A solar powered fountain is also planned for the school grounds.  This will be made entirely from reused materials.  In addition, the art department often reuses cans and coathangers to make sculptures. 

Fife Council collects all of Inverkeithing High School’s waste paper for recycling.  Aluminium cans and plastic bottles are also collected in the school canteen for recycling.  The cans are crushed within the school and sold to metal merchants.  The plastic bottles are sent on to private companies to be recycled.  Textiles are collected via the ‘Rag Bag’ scheme.  This scheme is run by Nathans Waste Savers in Falkirk and it raises funds for the school.  Mobile phones are also collected for recycling.  These are sent to World Vision to benefit the charity.  Printer cartridges are sent to Office Green to be refilled.

Peebles High School is a large secondary school in the Scottish Borders Council area with approximately 1,300 students and 150 teachers.  The school dates back to 1858 and, along with extensive new accommodation, still uses the original building.

In May 2007, the school received Eco Schools’ most coveted award: a Green Flag.  One of the topics Peebles High School focused on was waste.  Teacher, Mr Keegan, explained that due to the size of the school, teachers use promotional campaigns to reach all pupils with Reduce, Reuse and Recycle messages.  They also find focus weeks useful to reinforce the importance of initiatives that run throughout the year. 

In an effort to reduce waste, signs are displayed at each printer and photocopier to remind people to keep printing and photocopying to a minimum and to always print and photocopy double-sided.  Furthermore, food waste and garden waste is composted to reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill.

Peebles High School also tries to reuse waste as much as possible.  They use waste for mosaics and other art projects.  For example, pupils have made an eco sculpture out of cans.

Peebles High School recycles all paper products, plastic bottles, mobile phones and ink cartridges. The phones and cartridges are sent to an organisation in Falkirk and the school gets money back, which they feed into charity.  The school has an ‘S6 working party’ that monitors the collection of the mobile phones and ink cartridges.

In the first year of recycling within the school, a green tray for paper and a blue tray for plastic bottles were placed in every classroom; these were then collected by pupils and taken to the external bins.  Last year, this collection was done by the Social Education department as part of S1 lessons, and this year the classroom teachers simply request pupils to empty the trays whenever they are full.

In addition, there are bins for plastic bottles in the canteen and throughout the school.  Pupils in the S6 art class painted the bins to look like popular soft drink brands and the Craft, Design and Technology classes drilled round holes in the lids.  Pupils’ involvement in this way is thought to encourage participation in recycling.

Peebles High School recycles two large skip-fulls of paper and over 1,000 plastic bottles per week.  Mr Keegan says, “It must be a whole school effort, but now it is just part of everyday life here at Peebles High.”

Coldingham Primary School in the Scottish Borders is located on the east coast of Scotland approximately 45 miles south of Edinburgh. The School was founded in 1892 and the main body of the school is still standing and used as classrooms.

Coldingham Primary School received their Bronze award for Eco-schools in April 2007. In addition to many other initiatives and activities the school made waste reduction one of their priorities.

Every classroom was issued with a paper recycling bin and in the school canteen there were additional bins for collecting plastic bottles and cans. Recently, due to council developments, they can now recycle cartons and plastic packaging. Their recycling bins are emptied by the school cleaner when necessary and put out for council collection each week.

When working towards their Silver award they stepped up a gear and began to reuse as well as recycle.

They ordered free composting bins from Waste Aware Scotland and invited Amanda Braid, the Home Composting Advisor, in to explain to the school and Eco-committee the benefits and logistics of composting. The moment the bins and caddies arrived, they were up and running. Now each committee member is responsible for the caddies on a different day of the week. On this day they take the caddies out at playtime and empty them after lunch. All of the children know what can go into the compost bin thanks to the assembly from Amanda.

Each day the committee members are accompanied by another pupil in the school so everyone is part of the process. So far they have one compost bin three quarters full with fruit and vegetable scraps and garden weeds. Amanda also explained about wormeries and it’s now on their list for a future plan.

The Eco-committee also held an assembly to highlight how to minimize waste by photocopying on both sides of the paper and using scrap paper in class for drawings and notes. P1/2 are also reusing old envelopes at their writing table.

Landfill sites have also been brought to the children’s attention and recently P5-7 have done a project on ‘Stig of the Dump‘ highlighting pollution problems. P3/4 have also looked at global warming during a recent topic on the Arctic. P3/4 are currently investigating water consumption through their topic on water and will shortly be checking the toilet hippos.

This term the Art Trophy will be presented to the pupil who can design the most interesting sculpture out of junk. This has been inspired not only by the plight to reuse but also through a recent school topic on architecture which saw the children design and recreate many buildings using junk.

P5-7 have investigated some sources of sustainable energy during their project on electricity. During this time they were able to experiment with solar and wind power through equipment purchased from an Edina Grant. The policy is to turn lights off if you are not in the room and keep heating low or off.

The Eco-committee are currently investigating where they can send old mobile phones and how to dispose of dead batteries. The Silver Award was achieved in September 2007 and their Green Flag application is now on the horizon.