Education
and Training
Case Studies
Rotherham Council
The issue: By 2004, kerbside recycling for paper, glass, cans and textiles had been introduced by Rotherham Council to more than 95% of households. They were focused on promoting the service to raise recycling rates, which were below 15%. Following the success of Waste Watch's Rotherham Schools Waste Action Club project, the council saw work in schools as a key part of their strategy for achieving this and required Waste Watch to develop a new project to increase recycling in homes and communities.
The challenge: The programme had to meet the educational needs of schools and ensure waste reduction messages went home with pupils. Developing a method to measure the impact of school-based waste education on recycling and waste levels in local areas was another key challenge.
Our approach: An education officer works in primary schools for THAW to increase awareness and encourage use of kerbside recycling schemes. The officer works with each child several times to maximise opportunities for waste reduction messages to be taken home. Each classroom activity is followed up with a 'take home' booklet for pupils which outlines what had been taught at school and contains waste facts; tips to reduce waste at home, and a simple task for parents and pupils to do together. Work in each school concludes with an assembly, which parents can attend, to allow the message to be communicated directly to them.
The results: The project worked directly with more than 6,700 pupils in 39 schools, with 22 further schools benefiting from teacher training. Monitoring and evaluation measured the impact of the programme. From start to end of their work with the project, pupils' waste knowledge at least tripled at Key Stage 1 and approximately doubled at Key Stage 2. Areas which we monitored most intensively revealed that the numbers of householders recycling increased by up to 25% (average increase of 8.6%); paper recycling tonnages increased by an average of 8.7%; and rubbish not recycled fell by an average of 4-5%.
"We phoned up for a blue box and a blue bag and started recycling".
Year 3 pupil, Harthill Primary