Raising Awarness

Raising awareness within your school

For your recycling scheme to be successful, it is important for everyone to know what to recycle and where to recycle it.

We started by developing an action plan and holding our  first recycling assembly. Our bins are clearly labelled and we regularly remind everyone of what can and can’t be recycled in assemblies. Recycling is easy to do and it’s part of our day-to-day life at school.

Rachel Matthews, teacher, Ashfield School

Make it fun and easy. An exciting launch involving the whole school, parents and even your local authority and local media is a great way to kick off a new scheme. You could decorate your school with the downloadable Recycle Now awareness posters, use the Recycle Now bin stickers and show everyone how your scheme works.

Getting staff involved

  • Hold an introductory staff meeting and include external staff such as cleaners. Explain how your school plans to develop a recycling system.
  • Do a staff training session to discuss implementation, from initial waste audit through to organising external and internal recycling collections and agreeing staff member roles.
  • Display key dates, achievements and clear information on staff notice boards.
  • Hold follow-up training sessions to help staff communicate about recycling to pupils, for example through fun recycling activities or recycling in the curriculum.

Inspiring pupils

  • The school council/eco committee can deliver an assembly to the whole school, outlining the new recycling plans.
  • Prepare weekly/fortnightly updates in assemblies, newsletters, pupil notice boards and the school’s website.
  • Nominate recycling champions and run recycling competitions.
  • Organise social activities based around recycling, such as waste-free lunch.
  • Arrange a visit from a member of your local authority’s recycling department.

To help you communicate recycling information better to everyone involved, you can use the carbon calculator to convert recycling data into easily understood carbon saving equivalents e.g. by recycling 3,000kg of paper you save enough emissions to take a car of the road for a whole year!

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Top tips

  1. Have a recycling point in every room

    Don’t forget non-teaching areas like the office, staff room and kitchen

  2. Put rubbish bins and recycling points together

    This makes it as easy to recycle as it is to throw something away

  3. Keep people informed

    Make sure everyone knows what can be recycled at school and why it is important to recycle

  4. Label recycling points and waste bins clearly

    This will help avoid the wrong things being put in the wrong bin

  5. Set up a rota

    Set up a rota for emptying the recycling point

  6. Monitor your recycling scheme

    Watch out for any decline in recycling levels. For example, you could keep a record of how full your external recycling bin is each week.

  7. Have regular recycling reports

    Report at assemblies and display amounts of recycling collected on a notice board to keep everyone informed and motivated.

  8. Motivate teachers to lead by example

    Recycle as much as possible and encourage pupils to get involved.

  9. Involve cleaning and support staff

    Ensure cleaning and support staff are informed of changes which affect them and let them know how important their role is.

  10. Spread your success

    Tell other people about successes, especially parents and the local press and praise all the teams involved