Waste Warriors Win Wrapper Free Challenge

Published 28 November 2019

Mount Samson State School has litter-ally taken out top honours for Council’s 2019 Regional Recycler competition with their “Waste Free Wednesday” initiative.

As part of National Recycling Week, students from across the region entered this year’s Wrapper Free Lunch challenge and came up with brilliant ways to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and focus on healthy lunch choices.

Division 11 Cr Darren Grimwade said the Waste Warriors recorded an impressive 49% reduction in the school’s waste, even using beeswax instead of plastic to wrap food for their litter free lunches.

“The aim of the competition was to get kids to come up with ways to minimise rubbish, teach their peers and measure the success using data they have collected through surveys and audits,” Cr Grimwade said.

“We had so many great entries this year, which made choosing the winner incredibly difficult.

“Mount Samson State School did a great job communicating to the school community and even sent letters to local newspapers as well as Uncle Toby’s who wrote back thanking the students for their great ideas.

“This group of students went above and beyond to win the $2,500 award, and we also awarded $500 highly commended prizes to St Columban’s College, Pumicestone State School and Casia House Early Learning Centre for their great efforts,”

Spokesperson for Waste Cr Hain said the Regional Recycler competition helped students understand the benefit of reducing and recycling waste and the positive impacts it has on the environment.

“We want to encourage the youth of today to be our agents of change,” he said.

“We know that kids go home and talk about what they learned at school.

“They teach their parents about recycling and show them ways they can reduce waste in and around the home

“If everyone does their part to reduce, reuse and recycle - it takes massive pressure off our landfill sites.”