Harrow Way’s Eco Club is ensuring the School keeps the environment at the top of its agenda with the launch of a number of exciting new initiatives. With the help of the Eco Club and a number of partners the School is battling waste, plastic and litter as it moves to becoming eco-friendlier.
Donna Robertson, the teacher leading the Eco Club explains further: With 934 students and over 120 staff on site, the Harrow Way community can produce a lot of waste. The Eco Club has a two-prong approach. Firstly we are trying to educate our community about how they can make changes to reduce their impact on the environment and secondly where there is waste, the Club has introduced a number of initiatives to ensure this is managed in an environmentally friendly way as possible.!–more–>
Harrow Way has partnered up with a number of external organisations including SSI SCHAEFER, a world leader in waste engineering. This locally based company generously donated 12, 140 litre wheeled bins, 6 x 15 litre and 6 x 30 litre carry caddies to the school. The experts from Test Valley Borough Council have been mentoring the Eco Club and have also donated a special bin so students and staff can continue their good work recycling crisp packets and a number of Harrow Way students have been working with Andover Trees United on their many projects.
A powerful initiative underway that will have both a symbolic meaning while playing a practical role is the building of a wall of plastic bottles around the half mile school field. This will demonstrate the volume of what is normally discarded and will also prevent rubbish from entering the School site to keep the wildlife safer.
Year 7s will not be contributing to the wall contents though as Harrow Way has introduced reusable water bottles for all the new starters to reduce their single-use plastic. Mrs Robertson continues: Year 7s won’t miss out on helping us become a more environmentally aware and friendly school as we have also introduced litter picking duties and we also ensure that all paper used in the classrooms is properly recycled.
A significant change for both staff and students is the ditching of plastic cutlery in the School canteen, opting to use wooden instead. And behind the scenes of the canteen, all organic waste from the catering department and the staff room will now be composted in the school’s new composter.
Ms Robertson concludes: We have to equip this younger generation with the knowledge and skills to be more environmentally conscious and environmentally friendly. It needs to become second nature and we hope that by embedding these habits now, our students will act as positive ambassadors when in their own homes and away from school.