Sustainability @ Featherbrook, Nude Food Helps Manage Waste

It was so heartening to see so many of our students enjoying healthy food options as I spent lunch time in a Year 3 / 4 class on Friday. The considerable number of families who have adopted the vision of the school to observe sustainability practices by simply ensuring their children are bringing their food in containers to reduce plastic wrap and other land fill waste, are to be congratulated. I thank and acknowledge the many parents and carers who are 'showing the way' to taking care of our environment, so that our children will inherit a planet to enjoy. Students are also to be congratulated for observing the important role they play in contributing to a more sustainable world by taking small and achievable sustainability steps in our college.

Thank you! I have included a section of the school's Sustainability Environmental Management Plan (SEMP) that outlines the college's Waste Management endeavour. The focus on nude food to contribute to this endeavour is clear in in all points below. I encourage all families to support this endeavour so that we can indeed say and know that we are a Resource Smart School.

Sustainability Policy

Featherbrook College aims to reduce our ecological footprint through adopting sustainable practices in our everyday operations. Environmental education is an investment in our future. It enables individuals to help protect and restore the integrity of the earth’s natural systems and promotes ecological sustainable lifestyles. (Investing in the Future, Department of Education, Victoria May 1998). We will achieve this by continuing to integrate sustainability into all areas of the curriculum and instilling a sense of ownership of and pride in improving the environment. Students’ will build knowledge, skills and values through active, self-directed learning and ethically responsible citizenship. (A National Environmental Education Statement for Australian Schools, 2005).

Waste Management Aim ​

1. To use an integrated waste management system
   
2. Educate students, staff and the whole community about the best practices for waste management
   
3. Practise the 5R’s waste minimisation hierarchy, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle
   
4. Close the loop on organic waste onsite (garden cones)
   
5. Reduce recycled products and cost of landfill collections
   
6. Conduct auditing and monitoring of waste at our school.