King’s Green Team Achieves 100% recycling target
It’s ‘waste not, want not’ at the King’s School with their recycling schemes achieving 100% diversion of waste from landfill for the first time ever this month.
The drive to a 100% eco-friendly environment has been pioneered by King’s Estates Manager Peter Jackson working in tandem with King’s army of mini eco warriors.
Eco Monitor and Year 6 pupil Rosie Johnson, who has promoted the removal of disposable plastics from the canteen and delivered a special assembly to encourage everyone to do their bit, said: “We only have one planet and we want it to be just as beautiful, green and lovely when we grow up. There is nothing worse than seeing all the plastic that is ending up in our oceans and on our beaches.”
She added: “Most of us are used to recycling waste at home, but in a school as big as King’s it’s even more important that we recycle absolutely everything.”
Peter Jackson, King’s Estates Manager, who masterminded this success, said “King’s is a large school with over 1200 pupils, 300 staff and three sites, so like other businesses, we generate a lot of waste. We see it as part of our responsibility to dispose of it in a sustainable and eco-friendly way.”
“We are delighted to have achieved diversion of 100% of our waste away from landfill and into recycling schemes. We’ve been working with our waste partners Bagnall & Morris for the last three years to achieve this 100% success rate.
“We have numerous recycling bins located around the sites which are collected weekly. The cardboard and paper is then recycled into new products, the general waste is taken to a Materials Recovery Facility where any recyclables are removed before the residual waste is sent on for processing and 100% is recovered as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). Food waste is 100% recovered through conversion into renewable energy and nutrient-rich bio-fertiliser at an Anaerobic Digestion facility.”
Peter added: “The results have been significant; King’s now diverts all waste from landfill and by doing so saves over 5,000 kg of carbon each month.”
Graham Curtis, Director at Bagnall & Morris said “As with everything they do, King’s takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously. We praise King’s and their staff for their forward thinking approach and implementing the new waste strategy we have worked on together.”
King’s believes it’s good to be green and other eco-friendly projects undertaken by the pupils include appointing Eco Monitors, organising litter picks in the local parks and being part of the RHS School Gardening scheme.
