Waste

Food waste

If food waste is a problem, why not start by weighing and recording food waste over a week, to give you a baseline to measure your progress.

Form a student action group and consult – sometimes food waste is a result of long queues and rushed eating times.

Put Food Waste Action Week in the calendar. Raise awareness, and create incentives for clean plates.

Can you compost on site? RHS have a guide for schools, including lessons plans.

Saving water

On a per-person basis, England doesn’t have as much water as you might expect, so using it well is important. It also saves the school money.

Build good water use in with low flush toilets and sensor taps.

Fit water butts to provide water for gardens.

When planning new buildings, consider using greywater systems and rainwater harvesting – for example, Luton Sixth Form College flushes toilets with rainwater.

Recycling and rubbish

A lot of schools are good at recycling, but reducing waste is even better! Can you eliminate single-use plastics at schools and get Plastic-Free School accreditation?

Raise your recycling rates with lesson plans from Recycle Now, and visit the council website for details of recycling in Luton.

You can also raise money by hosting a public drop-off point for hard-to-recycle items such as toothbrushes or pens. See Terracycle or Bag2School.

Sharing and repairing

We’re lucky to have the Level Trust’s uniform exchange in the Mall in Luton. It saves families money as well reducing the number of unused items sitting in wardrobes, so recommend it to parents!

Set up a book sharing box to give away books being retired from the library, and for families to share books as their children out-grow them.

Could you host a community repair day where people can get clothes or small appliances repaired?