In Week 8, Chris Kallo, Prefect and a member of the Students of the World Ecology Group spoke at the Years 7-12 student-led assembly. Chris spoke about the importance of World Oceans Day which was celebrated on Wednesday, 8 June. As we are a coastal community, this is of particular relevance.
Here is an excerpt from his persuasive speech:
I think you would all agree that we are very lucky to have the ocean on our doorstep. Now, imagine a world where the ocean is off limits to us, because of our constant pollution. Imagine a world without the diversity of animal life we enjoy today. Well, this world could be our reality if things continue the way they are.
As Waverley is situated at the top of a hill overlooking the coast, any rubbish lying around, especially soft plastics, only has one direction to go, and that is down the hill, giving our rubbish a one-way express ticket to the ocean. Lately, our own school environment has become far too polluted. Too often, I see litter on the floor around the campus, especially around the locker areas.
Our team of cleaners do a wonderful job. However, their job isn’t to pick up our rubbish. It is to keep us safe by cleaning surfaces and emptying the bins. Unfortunately, this extra work is taking their time away from keeping us safe, and keeping our school as pristine as possible. It really shouldn’t be too much to ask to put our rubbish in the bin and in the right bin. Each piece of rubbish put into the right bin is doing its part to save our environment.
The Ecology team along with help of Ms Sutcliffe and Mr Winch, our Head of Maintenance, have organised a trial of organic food waste bins, which will be here by next week, so we will finally have somewhere to recycle our food waste. They will be situated in the TAS department for Hospitality, the Canteen, and the main Staff Room, so that our teachers and support staff can participate too.
However, the main bin we students need to know about, is the one that will be in the Kenny Quad. This is one of the ways our College is trying to reduce our environmental footprint in order to save our environment. If these trials are successful, then expect many more food waste bins to be littered, (no pun intended), around our most common eating areas.
Please be mindful of which bin you are putting your rubbish in. As a reminder to us all:
- Yellow Bins – hard plastic only, if it has the recycle triangle then it goes in the yellow bin – NO food waste, as this contaminates the bin and cannot be recycled.
- Organics/Food waste – any food, but please, no packaging.
- Red and Black bins – everything else, remember these go to landfill, so whatever we put in will stay around for many many years to come.
I challenge you to do the right thing. Our College Prefects will be around our campus encouraging us all to do the right thing, and protect our environment, but particularly our oceans.
As we celebrate World Oceans Day 2022, I leave you with this inspirational video to show you, first hand, what we are capable of as a species.
>>> Click here to view the inspirational video.
Chris Kallo (Year 12)
Member of the Students of the World Ecology Group and Year 12 Prefect
Ms Rebecca Sutcliffe
Ecology Coordinator and Geography Teacher
Email: rsutcliffe@waverley.nsw.edu.au
