Sustainability with Mrs Bennett
Kaya Wanjoo – Hello and welcome,

The Noongar season is Makuru. Makuru sees the coldest and wettest time of the year in the South West. Traditionally, this was a good time of the year to move back inland from the coast as the winds turned to the west and south bringing the cold weather, rains and occasionally snow on the peaks of the Stirling and Porongurup Ranges.
As the waterways and catchments started to fill, people were able to move about their country with ease and their food sources changed from the sea, estuarine and lake foods to those of the land, in particular the grazing animals such as the kangaroo.
Makuru is also a time for a lot of animals to be pairing up in preparation for breeding in the coming season. If you look carefully, you might see pairs of 'wardongs' (ravens) flying together.
Upon the lakes and rivers of the South West, you'll also start to see a large influx of the Black Swan or 'Mali' as they too prepare to nest and breed.
Flowers that will start to emerge include the blues and purples of the blueberry lily (Dianella revoluta) and the purple flags (Patersonia occidentalis).
As the season comes to a close, you should also start to notice the white flowers of the weeping peppermint (Agonis flexuosa) as the blues start to make way for the white and cream flowers of Djilba.
There are still places left for this term, with spaces limited to 20 students. See attached invite for the term. The club will run from Week 3 to Week 9 on Mondays 3.15-4pm.
Remember to keep on bringing in your items for recycling. See the attached for what you can bring in. When dropping it in 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 the library. Leave your ring pulls on but take your plastic lids off. Alternatively use our school ID number at a community drop off point C10339712
Did you know our blue plastic school bench near the front office was made from 15 000 600ml water bottles?
Worm Whisperers
Welcome to our Worm Wizard students who collect the organic waste from around the school and look after our worms. Amir, Riley, Kobi and Zoey.
Plastic Free July
As part of our commitment to this vital cause, we held our first Wrap Free Wednesday last week. There were two classes who were completely wrap free. Please think about the alternatives to wrapping food or using single packet item such as chips, popcorn and squeezable yoghurts. We all need to think of the impact these non recyclables have on our environment. Let’s see how many classes can be wrap free next time.
Happy gardening and sustainable thinking,
Sandra Bennett – Sustainability Teacher (JESC).
Sustainability Coordinator (Joondalup Schools)