By Natalie Gallenti
Year nine students Zoe and Joanna recently took part in a program at Snowy River Campus School for Student Leadership in Marlo, and were required to construct a Community Learning Project.
Zoe said the group decided their project would be built around improving the environment at their school and would start by implementing a recycling program, which would be a first for the school.
“The recycling program was one of the main concerns when it came to brain-storming ideas for our community project, just because the school has no recycling system whatsoever and it is disheartening knowing that there are so many recyclables just put into the normal rubbish,” she said.
“We as a team are hoping that we can change the way our school community thinks about recycling and rubbish disposal in hope that they will start to realise what an impact it will have on the school environment. We are also hoping that once putting this program into action it will continue at the school even after we have graduated.”
She said the biggest task would be getting their peers to take part in ‘Operation Rubbish Real Estate’, but they would encourage involvement by holding competitions for students to come up with designs for the houses which they will then get to paint onto the bin houses.
“As a team we are worried that the way our school handles rubbish disposal is impacting greatly on the environment that surrounds our school.”
She said the students were particularly saddened by the amount of rubbish found at a nearby lake, where animals inhabited.
“We think that schools need to teach their students about caring for the environment as it’s the only one we have. And once we wreck it by covering it in our rubbish and waste we won’t have it anymore, it would be awful if that happened so we want to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”
