Sustainability Corner
Kaya Wanjoo – Hello and welcome
The Noongar season is Djilba. A transitional time of the year, Djilba has days that are very cold, some that are rainy and windy and others where the sun comes through. As the days start to warm up, you’ll hear and see the first of the new born animals with their parents providing them with food, shelter and protection from other animals and people. The woodland birds will still be nest bound, hence the swooping behaviour of the Koolbardi (magpie), Djidi Djidi (Willywag tails) and the Chuck-a-luck (wattle birds).
This is the start of the massive flowering explosion in the South West. It begins with yellow flowering plants such as the Acacias. You’ll also notice cream and striking blue coloured flowers. As the season progresses and the temperatures continue to rise, you will see the flower stalks of the Balgas (Grass Tress) emerging in preparation for the coming Kambarang season.
Traditionally, the main food source at this time of the year included many of the land based grazing animals including Yongar (kangaroo), Waiitj (Emu) and the Koomal (possum).
Our small but dedicated group of students, parents and staff come together every Thursday afternoon from 3.15 to 4pm to look after the garden. Our garden beds are in full bloom with many vegetables already being harvested, cooked and tasted.
There are still places left for this term, with spaces limited to 20 students. See attached invite and agenda for the term.
Thank you to the Corley family (Nathan & Joshua) for your donation of a new wheelbarrow. You are a wonderful community minded family. Very much appreciated.
Recycling Station
You may have noticed our new community recycling station is up and running at the end of room 34 (near the oval). When dropping recycling to the school please put it into the correct bin. Make sure items are not in a plastic bag and are clean. Our students diligently go through the bins in order to pack and send off for recycling and we don’t want nasty surprises for them. Our focus bin this newsletter is Coffee Pods – they need to be clean, not leaking and not in another bag. These are then packaged and sent to a local TerraCycle Material Recovery Facilities located in the same country in which the waste originates. Once sorted by category, the different material types are cleaned and then sent to third-party partners to process the materials into usable forms.
For example, metals and aluminium are shredded and smelted into metal sheeting, ingots, or bar stock. Glass is crushed and melted to be used in new glass bottles (if clear), or brick, cement, or concrete applications (if coloured). Rubber is generally cryo-milled into a powdered state for flooring applications. Organics are composted or used in industrial and commercial fertilisers.
Plastics are the largest category of material collected. These materials are size-reduced (made smaller by being shredded or ground), then melted and reformatted into pellets, flakes, or a powder format.
After TerraCycle recycle the waste into raw material, it’s sold to manufacturing companies who produce the end product and complete the recycling journey. These end products may include outdoor furniture and decking, plastic shipping pallets, watering cans, storage containers and bins, tubes for construction applications, flooring tiles, playground surface covers, athletic fields, and more!
If you would like to know more about what you can do at home for recycling, go to www.terracycle.com.au
Containers for Change
Continue to bring in your Containers for Change bottles/cans (clean and LIDS removed). Place in the big blue bin near Room 34. Leave your ring pulls on but take your plastic lids off. Alternatively use our school ID number at a community drop off point C10339712
So far we have saved 2793 containers from landfill which has earnt the school $279.30. This money will be used towards a sustainable product for whole school use at the end of the year. Did you know our blue plastic school bench near the front office was made from 15000 600ml water bottles?
Grow Free Cart
Our Grow Free Cart is back up and running thanks to Room 27 who have taken over this responsibility as part of their sustainability lessons. Excess produce grown in our school is placed on this cart, along with seedlings etc. You are encouraged to take what you need and give what you can. So bring your excess lemons, cuttings, gardening/cooking magazines and place them on the cart. A big thank you to our lovely Education Assistant Mrs Galt who designed our poster.
Happy gardening and sustainable thinking,
Sandra Bennett – Science/Sustainability Teacher (JESC). Sustainability Coordinator (Joondalup Schools)
Nerelle Phillips – Science Teacher JPS.