11 Jun 2024
On Tuesday 11 June, Burrumbuttock Public School headed in to the Albury Waste Management Centre for our Halve Waste excursion. This excursion was planned by Mrs Trevethan to consolidate the learning of our Geography units in both Waratah and Banksia. It also ties in nicely with the rich texts that Banksia have been studying in literacy that have had the underlining theme of sustainability and looking after the environment.
It was a cold and rainy day, but we didn’t let that stop us from having a great time. We started off by having recess in the nice warm education centre, where Jen and Sarah showed us videos about how recycling is sorted and taught us all about exactly what rubbish can go in each of the 3 bins. Red is for general waste, Green is for organics, food scraps and garden waste (Burrumbuttock and the Greater Hume Shire will be getting a green bin in early July) and Yellow is for recyclable items such as hard plastics, clean cardboard, aluminium and steel cans and glass jars etc. Please go to https://halvewaste.com.au/education/ for more detailed information about what can go in each bin.
We then hopped back in Rosie (the bus) with Jen and Sarah and were treated to a special behind the scenes guided tour of the facility. It was a fun and insightful way to see first-hand what happens to the waste we generate locally and the associated environmental impacts. We learnt some key actions that can be taken to increase waste sustainability at home and at school.
“We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly” – Anne-Marie Bonnea
We then headed to the Albury Library, they were kind enough to let us use a warm room upstairs to have our lunch and then Waratah went to explore the Ancient Romains exhibition whilst Banksia went down to the library to explore the children’s section and read a great story together called ‘The Elephant Detective’. We then all met back up together for a very interesting session all about sustainability, local flora and fauna and the impact of introduced pests and pollution on our local environment. We participated in a hands-on game and had some really interesting conversations with the two presenters.
Mrs Hill and Ms Johnston were very proud of all the students and the way they represented our school on this day. A great day was had by all.