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Education & Awareness
Waste management remains a high profile and priority issue in Northern Ireland. If we are to preserve our environment for future generations we must change our habits and modernise our approach to managing our waste.
Why? Land filling waste is no longer sustainable. There are now fewer landfill sites and the cost of waste disposal is expected to significantly increase over the coming years. Both the European Union and Central Government have imposed waste diversion targets on Local Councils.
How must we change? We must now look at not only Reusing and Recycling our waste but also ways in which we can Reduce the amount of waste we produce in the first place (the 3 R’s). Education will play a key role in changing our behaviour and mindset and increasing our understanding of sustainable living.
Details of Talks
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME
The Council provides educational talks and activities to all schools, community groups, churches and other interested organisations/bodies. These talks cover a range of topics in the areas of waste awareness and are provided free of charge. Our talks to schools can be adapted to all Key Stage groups and run in conjunction with the current curriculum.
Please find below a list of activities and talks available as part of our Educational Programme.
Reduce, Re-use and Recycle talk. KS1, KS2, KS3
Video and visual, interactive presentation and activity designed to show children the problems rubbish can cause within the world and encourage them to reduce, re-use and recycle.
Tri-Cycle talk Churches/Community Groups/Organisations Visual and interactive presentation to highlight problems with waste. Information is given on the Council’s kerbside recycling scheme, what it entails and how it will help to reduce waste in Castlereagh.
Tetra Pack Activity KS2
Children make and decorate purses, wallets and handbags from empty tetra packs (juice and milk cartons). This fun activity is designed to encourage children to see waste as a valuable and reusable material.
Litter Lift KS2
We can provide instruction, assistance, litter pickers and bags for classes, if they want to organise a litter lift and survey in their school grounds.
Contacts
If you would like to obtain further information, or to arrange a talk for your school, youth or community group etc, or to request further posters, please contact: Sarah Turley, Recycling & Environment Officer, on (028) 9049627.
Eco Schools
What's it all about?
Eco schools is a great way to make sustainable development a part of the life and ethos of your school. Designed to fit into the curriculum, it's an award scheme that gets everyone in the school community involved in making the school environment better.
What is Eco Schools?
Eco Schools is much more than an environmental management system for schools. It is a programme for promoting environmental awareness in a way that links to many curriculum subjects, including citizenship, personal, social and health education (PSHE) and education for sustainable development. It is also an award scheme that will raise the profile of your school in the wider community.
The Eco Schools process is holistic. It works by involving the whole school (pupils, teachers, non-teaching staff and governors) together with members of the local community (parents, the local authority, the media and local businesses). It will encourage teamwork and help to create a shared understanding of what it takes to run a school in a way that respects and enhances the environment.
Eco Schools offers your school:
- an opportunity to make environmental issues a part of the life of the school
- an opportunity to help develop young people's decision-making skills
- curriculum materials and ideas for projects and events
- access to a network of support agencies
- links with other schools in the UK and Europe
- a prestigious award
- opportunities for local and national publicity
- potential for financial savings
It requires:
- the support of the head teacher and governors
- a willingness to involve pupils in decision-making and action at every stage
- active involvement of staff and the wider school community
- a willingness to take action to instigate long-term change
How does Eco Schools work?
The Eco Schools programme involves three main stages: implementing the seven elements of the process applying for one of the three Eco Schools awards - a bronze-level award, a silver-level award or a Green Flag - depending on how much you have achieved renewing your award every two years
The Eco Schools process
The structure of the Eco Schools process is made up of seven elements. You must have gone some way towards implementing all of them before applying for an award.
The seven elements are as follows:
- setting up an Eco-Committee to take the programme forward
- carrying out an environmental review to identify problem areas
- creating and carrying out an action plan to set environmental targets and working towards achieving them
- monitoring and evaluating your progress in working towards your targets
- integrating your environmental activities with the school's curriculum
- involving the whole school and the wider community in your environmental activities, making sure you are generating regular publicity
- creating an Eco-Code that sets out the school's aims and mission
What are the benefits?
Greater awareness and respect for the environment, cash savings on bills and better links with the local community are just some of the benefits of becoming an Eco School. But don't take our word for it. Here's what a few teachers and a pupil have to say about their experience of the Eco Schools scheme.
Applying for an Eco Schools award
Once you have implemented the seven elements of the Eco Schools process you can apply for an Eco Schools award. There are three levels of award:
- bronze award
- silver award
- Green Flag
You can apply for any one of these levels depending on how much you feel your school has achieved. The process section contains details of the criteria used to judge what level of award a school should be granted. The criteria will help to give you an idea of what stage your school has reached and what level of award you could apply for.
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ECO-SCHOOLS
Please log onto http://www.eco-schools.org.uk
School Recycling Scheme
More people than ever are concerned about the environment and want to make a difference.
In addition to the production of education materials and the delivery of educational talks and programmes, it was decided to introduce a practical recycling element within schools. Learning through practical experience is considered by many to be an important principle for incorporation into any education programme; therefore introducing recycling schemes in schools is an important aspect of changing attitudes to waste.
Please contact Emma Crawford, Recycling and Environment Officer on 028 90 494629 for options.
Facts & Figures
 INFORMATION PACK Aluminium and Steel cans
INFORMATION-PACK-Card.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-glass.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-organic.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-Paper.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-plastic.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-Steel-Cans.pdf
INFORMATION-PACK-Textiles.pdf
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