School Waste Assessment Tool

  • Introduction
  • 1Gather support
  • 2 Waste audit
  • 3 Develop plan
  • 4 Implement plan
  • 5 Review

Congratulations on completing the questions in A School’s Guide to Reducing Waste. You are now ready to input your information and results from the audit and develop your school’s waste management action plan through this quick and easy five-step process.

Step 1: Gather supportForm a waste action team made up of teaching and non-teaching staff (eg cleaners, tuckshop convenor, business service manager, ground-staff), parents and students. Nominate one person to be the coordinator.
Step 2: Collect informationEvaluate current waste and recovery systems.
Step 3: Develop a waste management action planCreate an action plan that provides a systematic and structured approach for reducing waste and saving costs.
Step 4: Implement planIntroduce strategies outlined in plan.
Step 5: Review and monitorThe school waste management plan is a work in progress and ongoing monitoring and evaluation are essential to ensure the success of your plan.

 

Gather support
School details
Waste action team

The foundation to a successful waste minimisation program is to develop a whole-school approach. The more people who are involved in the process, the more people there are to take ownership of the process and help to bring about behaviour change.

Establish a coordinator and a working group.

Involve the whole school community including:

  • the principal, teachers and other staff
  • parents and caregivers
  • tuckshop convenor
  • grounds staff
  • cleaners
  • administration staff
  • students
Coordinator
Working group
Collection waste information

The activities in A School’s Guide To Reducing Waste asked you to collect information about your school’s current waste procedures. Collecting this information will help to identify the amount and types of waste being sent to landfill and highlight potential ways to minimise waste.

An assessment of current waste management practices involves:

  • auditing the quantity and types of waste being generated
  • reviewing current waste systems
  • recognising strategies that are working well
Business and operational waste information
List other waste minimisation strategies (eg green waste collection, composting, nude food days, chooks.)
Waste audit

A waste audit is a process designed to analyse the amount and types of waste being generated by an organisation such as a school. It provides the baseline data against which all future waste minimisation strategies can be measured.

There are two different types of waste audits that provide valuable information for minimising school waste.

  • A visual waste audit involves a visual inspection of external waste bins to determine how full they are when they are put out for collection. This will allow you to determine how much waste is being generated by the school every week and over the course of a 40 week school year.
  • A solid waste audit involves an examination of a number of internal bins within the school to reveal what types of waste are being disposed of and how much of this waste could be recovered through reuse, recycling or composting.

For step by step instructions on how to carry out a visual and solid waste audit refer to A School’s Guide To Reducing Waste. The data from your audits can be input below.

Total amount of waste generated will be displayed at the end of Step 2.

Visual waste audit for general waste, recyclables and green waste bins
1
Solid waste audit

It’s time to look at what is in your general waste bins and work out how much of this could be recovered.

Before you begin, ensure that you have a number of general waste bins from within the school containing a day’s worth of rubbish. The more bins that you audit, the more accurate the findings will be. At the very minimum, audit one bin from an eating area and one bin from a classroom.

1
Totals
Your waste audit results

Visual waste audit

Your school throws out litres of waste each year, % of this waste is recycled. Your current waste profile is illustrated below.

Litres of waste generated per school year (40 weeks)

Solid waste audit

Results from the solid waste audit show that % of what is currently going in your general waste bins could be recycled and an additional % is organic waste that could be composted. In total, % of waste currently going to landfill could be recovered through recycling and composting.

Develop a waste management action plan

The information and data collected should enable you to create a waste management plan and prioritise key issues.

Click on each of the following focus areas for suggested ideas to help you to develop your plan.

Your selected options will be added to the action plan that will be sent you you at the end of this process.

Create your waste management action plan
Packaging and purchasing
Reducing Waste
Nude Food Lunches
Reuse
Recycling
Organic Recycling
Litter
Making your plan work

Once planning is complete it is time to implement your waste management action plan. It is a good idea to start small and implement one new action at a time.

Elements for success

  • Bin infrastructure, placement and signage

    Brisbane City Council officers are able to provide practical advice on waste and recycling collection services, bin infrastructure, bin configuration, signage and setting up an effective collection system within the school.

    Schools that have the bulk of their waste collected by Council are able to have their recycling collected free of charge by Brisbane City Council.

    Contact WaRRS-EducationOfficer@brisbane.qld.gov.au for more information.

  • Organic recycling

    There are several ways schools can cut down on organic waste and they can be incorporated into the school operations and classroom activities.

    Worm farming

    Children are fascinated by worms and watching them turn waste into a wonderful resource for gardens provides great educational value. Council has teacher resources including curriculum aligned lesson plans to incorporate worm farming with classroom activities.

    Refer to useful online information about worm farming as well as a worm farming video to help you.

    Composting

    Composting is a great way to manage larger amounts of garden waste as well as fruit and vegetable scraps. Council has useful online information about composting as well as a how to compost video.

  • Communication

    Ensure that the whole school knows about the new waste initiatives by promoting the school waste management plan in the newsletter, on the website, at assembly, via posters and videos and through competitions.

  • Student involvement

    Involve students in the development, promotion and successful implementation of the waste action plan.

    Create an environmental student team, for example, The Waste Warriors, who can educate others within the school community about the new waste initiatives. The Waste Warriors could give a presentation at Assembly, or to the Parents and Friends Association.

  • Education

    Council’s online resources can be used in your lesson planning, providing information about waste minimisation, recycling and litter prevention.

    Teacher resources - recycling and reducing waste | Brisbane City Council

    Includes:

    • curriculum-linked lesson plans
    • fact sheets
    • information about recycling materials
    • further resource suggestions

    Other resources about waste and recycling

    Educators and teachers can select from multiple resources to help teach their students about reducing waste. Council has collated a selection of relevant links to make the research process easier.

    Recycling guide for households | Brisbane City Council

    Use the recycling guide to help your students recycle more at home and send less waste to landfill. You can also download Council’s free Brisbane bin and recycling app, which can help you:

    • learn what to put in the recycling bin
    • remember your bin collection days
    • find out about Council's waste and resource recovery facilities and services.

    Waste hierarchy | Brisbane City Council

    Use the waste hierarchy in student discussions about how to reduce waste, with the aim to extract the maximum use from products while generating the minimum amount of waste.

    Visy Recycling Education Video - YouTube

    Watch Visy's recycling education video on Visy's YouTube channel to learn more about recycling correctly. See how Council diverts products from landfill for recycling at our material recovery facility.

  • Events

    Take advantage of events such as Clean Up Australia Day, Nude Food Week, National Recycling Week or World Environment Day to highlight waste issues and reinforce the importance of minimising waste.

Review and monitor

Congratulations on completing the A School’s Guide To Reducing Waste, developing and implementing your waste management plan, and helping to create a cleaner, greener environment.

To ensure the success of your waste management plan continue to follow the tips and tricks in the guide and monitor the effectiveness of your waste minimisation strategies on an ongoing basis to identify any issues that need to be addressed.

Every piece of waste that you save from going to landfill helps to save energy, water and non-renewable resources for future generations.

Celebrate and promote your achievements!

For support to improve your school’s bin infrastructure - contact Council at WaRRS-EducationOfficer@brisbane.qld.gov.au