Pupils and parents at a Bath school are getting top marks for recycling rubbish ahead of the new every-other-week rubbish collection service being rolled out this week.
St Saviour’s Infant School, in Spring Lane, is a Green Flag Eco-School and recycles all of its food, paper, cardboard, plastic and cans as well as composting fruit waste to use on the school’s kitchen garden.
Pupils are nominated as Recycling Champions with one in every class to make sure the right things go in the right containers.
With recycling a way of life within the school, staff and pupils hope it will become a way of life within the wider community.
Louise Holloway, a parent and teacher at St Saviour’s, has been getting ready by recycling more of her food.
She said: “I’ve got better at recycling now that I have a food waste bin for all our food waste and I encourage the children to do the same.
“I keep the bin outside the back door and transfer the food to this often. I was reluctant to recycle food waste at first but now knowing that food will still be collected every week, it has made me more proactive.”
Sophie Hunt, Deputy Headteacher, added: “As a Green Flag Eco-School we feel it’s essential to educate our children for the future. Everyone has a part to play in maintaining and preserving where we live in both our immediate area and also globally.
“We want our children to understand how their contribution affects the world around us and how by recycling in their every day school life, they can see how this fans out into the wider world.”
Cllr Bob Goodman (Conservative, Combe Down), Cabinet Member for Development & Neighbourhoods, said: ”More and more people are preparing to recycle more of their waste ready for the new every collection service.
“With the Council collecting up to 17 different types of recycling every week including food, there should be very little left to go in the rubbish bin.
“The new every other week rubbish collection service will help encourage people to recycle as much as possible as well as helping to keep the streets clean and making the service more affordable.”
The new rubbish collection service starts today, Monday 6th November.
From then on residents will have their rubbish collected every other week in either wheelie bins or re-usable rubbish bags. Now that it’s collected every other week, some will have the first of their new rubbish collections this week and some will have their first new collection the following week. Recycling and food waste will continue to be collected every week.
The Council is advising residents to make sure their waste is out by 7am as collection days and times may change. The Council is also offering residents a text reminder service for the first three months. Anyone wishing to sign up can text their postcode to 07520 631700.