Our achievements, accomplishments and events relating to Waste Management at Brentwood:

Recycling @ Athletics Carnival 2023

Once again, the Brentwood Green Team held a stall at the Athletics Carnival to collect aluminium cans and other recyclables in return for a house point each! Alongside the recycling, fun games were held, including the guessing jar and Trash Toss, which served as another opportunity to win house points. A total of 573 recyclables were collected this year. Thank you to the students and staff who gave their empty soft drink cans and bottles to recycle!

 

Additionally, the Green Team helped with running the BBQ at the Athletics Carnival, which was a huge success for the entire Brentwood community. 

National Recycling Week 2021

Thank you for recycling right and keeping the valuable materials out of landfill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Green Team has put together a short video (below) to refresh your knowledge about the nine recycling streams available at Brentwood. 

Please note that you can donate your old textbooks to the college library (please place them in the pigeonholes in the front foyer).

Recycling @ Athletics Carnival 2021

In addition to collecting empty aluminium cans and plastic bottles, the Green Team conducted the ‘Trash Toss’ fun game at the athletics carnival stall. House points were awarded for every recyclable returned and a free drink for every 10 empty recyclables. Many students and staff used this opportunity to boost their house points.

A total of 863 empty cans/bottles were brought to the Green Team stall.



SCR Old Textiles Collections

The old textiles bins near the staff car park at Brentwood have earned us $231 for last year’s old clothes collections from our community. Thank you for your donations. Please continue to donate your old clothes to the Brentwood hubs as they help in generating funds for our sustainability projects.

Items that can be dropped off in these bins include clothing, shoes and fashion accessories in clean and wearable condition. SCR also accepts Manchester (linen, pillowcases and doona covers).

Clean Up Brentwood Day 2021

The Brentwood Green Team participated in the Clean Up Brentwood Day on 5 March during period 4. The team managed to collect nearly 10 kgs of general waste and 4 kilos of recyclables from the college grounds and sent them to the respective bins. 

Most of the general waste included food wrapping and plastic snack packets. The team urges our community to consider bringing nude food to the college and prevent soft plastics from entering our waterways.

A huge Thank you to Mr. COOPER and Mrs. THAPLIYAL for volunteering their time to help us out with the clean-up.


'Recycle Right' video

The Brentwood Green Team took painstaking efforts and time to put together a comprehensive video on recycling at Brentwood. The video was used to raise awareness on the various streams of recycling available at Brentwood.

Coffee Cups Recycling @ Brentwood

 

Brentwood is going to trial ‘paper coffee cup recycling units’. We have introduced them into our main staff room, house hub and the SLC kitchen. Please empty the contents in the cup before placing them in the collection tube on the left. Lids and straws should be placed in the collection tube on the right.

Please don’t place any plastic cups/lids and liquids in the collection unit.

Coffee Cups Recycling @ Brentwood

 

The Coffee cups and lids recycling initiative at Brentwood has been a huge success.

Old mobile phones recycling 

Brentwood has been acknowledged for our old mobile phones donations last year. The Green Team would like to thank all families that have donated their old mobile phones to support our campaign.

 

An estimated 880 Mountain Gorillas remain in the wild jungles of Africa. Through providing life-saving medical care, the Gorilla Doctors are helping gorillas’ one patient at a time. Simply by donating your old mobile phone, you will contribute much needed funds for primate conservation, whilst reducing the demand for mining coltan in gorilla habitat. As mining for coltan carves its way through gorilla habitat, it increases the risk of humans and gorillas coming in contact. Wildlife trade, bush meat, competition for land and zoonotic diseases are all threats to gorillas in the wild. The Gorilla Doctors ensure the health and survival of Mountain Gorillas and Eastern Lowland Gorillas through veterinary and human health initiatives. Zoos Victoria makes helping save gorillas easy by supplying pre-paid postage recycling satchels and free courier pickup for schools collecting mobile phones. Funds generated through the refurbishment and resale of old phones supports both Gorilla Doctors work protecting wild gorilla populations in Africa and Zoos Victoria’s conservation programs.

 

This year, the Brentwood Green team is supporting Zoos Victoria’s old mobile phones recycling program. If you have any old mobile phones to donate, please bring them to the college library and drop them in the mobile phones recycling bin. Thank you for your support.


World Environment Day 

2020 

During remote learning, the Green Team has managed to create a video for World Environment Day focusing on packing a lunch without any kind of disposables.

2018 

The focus for this year’s World Environment Day (5 June) and World Oceans Day (8 June) is to reduce plastic pollution.

This World Environment Day, the Brentwood Green Team created a collage using plastic bottle caps and put it on display in the college library. The collage is used to promote awareness on the extent of plastic pollution in our environment and how we can reduce our plastic usage. We request every plastic consumer to exercise their buying power by refusing single-use plastics.

The Green Team would like to request all students to reduce the plastics brought to the college by bringing nude food to the college on Fridays. Every Friday is a Nude Food Day. Parents too can help us by packing healthy, rubbish-free lunch for their children. A Parent information sheet on ‘Nude Food Day’ is included in this newsletter.

We thank everyone for their support with beating plastic pollution. A special thank yo to our wonderful librarians Ms Brook Tayla, Ms Robyn Clark and Ms June Thein for their help with setting up the 'Beat Plastic Pollution' display in the college library.

2015 

The Green Team ran lunch-time activities in the college courtyards to mark this year''s World Environment Day. Team members raised awareness by asking questions relating to recycling and rewarding students for their correct responses

Recycling at Sports Carnivals

Athletics Carnival 2021

 

863 empty cans/bottles were brought to the Green Team stall at the athletics carnival. House points tally:

Wattle 291

Jacaranda 224

Banksia 217

Waratah 131

Total 863


Swimming Carnival 2021

 

Staff and students supported the Green Team's Recycling stall at the swimming carnival this year.

 

A total of 720 house points were awarded as per the following for returning recyclables to the stall:

Athletics Carnival 2020

Students and staff participated actively to support the Green Team's empty cans and bottles collection at the Athletics Carnival on 13 March. Staff and students returned empty cans and bottles to earn a house point for every recyclable returned and claimed a free drink for every 10 items returned to the Green Team stall. The final tally of the house points for recycling at the carnival is:


The Green Team would like to thank everyone for their efforts and support in recycling.

Thank you to all students who have been bringing 'Nude Food' to the college to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

Clean up Brentwood day 

2021

Thank you to the staff that let the Green Team attend the Clean Up Brentwood Day event on Friday, we managed to collect nearly 10 kgs of general waste and 4 kilos of recyclables from the college grounds. The team discovered some creative ways of waste disposal being used by students.

 

A huge THANK YOU to Ashley COOPER and Pramila THAPLIYAL for volunteering their time to help us out with the clean-up - appreciate your support!

 

2020

28 student leaders from the Green Team and House Captains participated in the Clean Up Brentwood Day. A significant reduction in waste collected indicates that more students are bringing ‘Nude-food’ to the college. Please continue to support the college and environment by reducing the number of disposable items brought to the college.

2018 

 

The Green Team members were joined by the homegroup captains in this year's Clean Up Brentwood Day. Students went around the college grounds and collected various recyclables and general waste items. Students realised the dangers of littering on college grounds.

2017

Students from the Green Team and Years 7 to 9 home group captains were involved in this year's Cleanup Brentwood day, held on March 17 during periods 5 and 6. Nearly 80 students partVpated in this initiative and managed to collect 13kgs of recyclabfe items and 14kgs of general waste. Thank you to everyone who supported the Green Team's initiative, especially to the Years 7-9 home group captains, and Mrs Wright.

National Recycling Week 

2019 

Three students from the Year 11 Product Design class, Bevan Plant, Sean Kim, Joshua Louey, designed a new recycling station using recycled materials to mark this year’s National Recycling Week. The recycling station is designed to collect old pens, markers, used batteries, old mobile phones and soft plastics. They are sent to various recycling facilities.

Students have been challenged to trial bringing ‘waste-fee lunch’ during this week.

Brentwood staff and students have collected several recyclables through the Recycling Station designed by our Year 11 Product Design students.

Nearly 50 kilos of old pens and markers were dropped at one of Terra Cycle’s drop off points. Old mobile phones were sent to Zoos Victoria to support their ‘They are calling on you’ campaign. Used batteries, old DVDs and globes were dropped at the Monash Waste Transfer Station in Notting hill by our staff. Bottle tops were sent to Envision, who create prosthetic limbs out of the bottle tops.

The Green Team would like to thank all students, staff and parents that supported us this year. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a wonderful break.

2018 

This year, the Brentwood Green team is supporting Zoos Victoria’s old mobile phones recycling program. 

The Green Team sorted and packed all the recyclables that were collected through the Recycling station in the main staffroom. Your support and contributions have helped us collect the following and prevented them from going to the landfill:

The Green team would like to thank everyone that contributed items to the recycling station.

2017

Our year 11 product design students have designed a recycling station using recycled timber, which is situated in the main staffroom.

2016

The Green team has finished the year by collecting old textbooks and novels to donate to our chosen charity 'Give a Textbook'. We have collected over 500 textbooks and novels. All the books collected by 'Give a textbook' go to support high schools and prisons in the Philippines. We appreciate the support from students, staff and parents for donating old books for a good cause. We would like to thank our amazing library staff for helping us out with collection and packing of old books.

https://www.facebook.com/qiveatextbook/

2015

Brentwood Secondary College is celebrating National Recycling Week 2015 by seeing how many mobile phones we can collect in our MobileMuster collection units. Simply bring in your old mobile phones, batteries and accessories and place them in the collection box in the front office. It's that easy! Last year Brentwoood collected 7.85 kg of old mobile phones, batteries and accessories and were sent to MobileMuster for recycling. Thank you to all staff, students and parents who have supported us in our success.

2014

Paper recycling bins have been introduced in TLC and G-block classrooms as a part of the National Recycling week.

Bottle tops recycling 

Brentwood has started a Bottle cap recycling system in which the bottle caps are donated to envision which then turn these plastic bottle caps into prosthetic limbs. Please donate bottle caps in the container situated in the library. 

Recycled office paper 

During 2019, Brentwood has decided to switch to 100% recycled paper to cut down on the amount and quality of the paper waste being produced throughout the school. 

Brentwood's waste free lunch challenge 

The Vic Bag Ban has started on the 1st of November and will apply to plastic shopping bags with handles and a thickness of 35 micrometres or less, including those that are made from degradable, biodegradable and compostable plastic.

This is the perfect time for us to start eliminating plastics from various acts of our daily lives. The best way to start is to consider taking up Brentwood’s ‘Waste-free Lunch Challenge’ during this year’s National Recycling Week (11-17 November 2019). We request families to discuss strategies to avoid soft plastics while packing student lunches. Please visit https://www.nudefoodday.com.au/resources/  for ideas on how to pack a waste-free lunch.

Packing a waste-free lunch helps you:

Old textbooks recycling 

2022

Brentwood has recently sent 50 boxes of old textbooks for recycling through James Bennett, which would otherwise have gone into a bin. We appreciate the initiative and support from the college librarians, Ms. Clark, Ms. Thien and Ms. Mckeddie in making this program a huge success.

https://www.bennett.com.au/news.cfm?articleid=16880.AB4BB


2019 

Thank you, Brentwood, for your response to the Old textbooks collection campaign. We collected over 400 textbooks. The books have been packed are being delivered to ‘Give a Textbook’ charity (https://www.gatfoundation.org.au/), that is going to ship them to disadvantaged schools in the Philippines.

A huge thank you to all families that donated old textbooks to support the ‘Give A Textbook (GAT)’ foundation. GAT Foundation is a not-for-profit charity that actively distributes old textbooks by promoting sustainability and environmental awareness through re-homing books within communities in Australia and the Philippines.

2018

Brentwood has recently donated 200+ old textbooks to ‘Recycled Textbooks’. We are glad that those old textbooks were rescued from going into a bin and are being reused in our community.

The Green Team would like to thank all parents, staff and students who donated old textbooks to us and supported this campaign. We would also like to thank our library staff who were very supportive in organising the collection box and managing the collection of textbooks during the campaign period. 

We are not collecting any old textbooks at the moment. Please visit ‘Recycled Textbooks’ website (https://www.recycledtextbooks.com.au/) and contact them directly if you would like to donate any old textbooks.

New recycling posters 

2019 

Our Waste contractor, Premier Waste, has confirmed that the recyclables collected from Brentwood are being sent to Orora and Polytrade for recycling and are NOT being diverted to the landfill. Due to the Victorian recycling crisis, we have been asked by Premier Waste to sort the wastes correctly at the source and avoid contamination.

 

The Green Team has recently updated the signage on all paper recycling bins in classrooms. We request all students to make a note of the items that are accepted in those bins and prevent contamination of the bins.

 

Coffee pods recycling 

In Term 3, our PSD coordinator, Ms Victoria Strong introduced collection of used coffee pods at Brentwood. The pods are collected by Nescafe and shipped to TerraCycle, where they are recycled. In the first installment, 18 kg of coffee pods were collected and sent to TerraCycle. To learn about this recycling program, please visit https://www.terracycle.com/en-AU/brigades/capsulebrigade


Plastic free July 2019  

Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Plastic Free July provides resources and ideas to help you (and millions of others around the world) reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work, school, and even at your local cafe. Their movement has inspired over 120 million participants in 177 countries.

 

Students at Brentwood have had the opportunity to win prizes by participating in the ‘Plastic-free July challenge’. As a part of the challenge, students were required to record the actions taken to refuse and reduce plastic usage in their daily lives and the challenges and successes they had from taking up this challenge. For more information regarding the challenge, please click here.


E- waste recycling 

E-waste – or electronic waste – is growing three times faster than the rate of standard municipal waste. It contains many potentially hazardous and valuable materials, which don’t belong in landfill. E-waste is any item with a plug, battery or power cord, that is no longer working or wanted. 

To help protect our environment and recover more precious resources, the Victorian Government is banning all e-waste from going to landfill as of 1 July 2019. That means, e-waste can’t go in any bin. https://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/Campaigns/eWaste

 

The old Electricals hub at Brentwood, near the staff carpark, accepts: all electrical items with a cord,

electronic devices (eg: laptops, printers), personal care electricals (eg: hair straightener), electrical appliances (eg: toaster, kettle, oven), DIY & garden electricals. All items collected through this hub are collected and recycled by the SCR group. http://scrg.com.au/


Old clothes recycling 

The SCR old clothes and electricals recycling program at Brentwood has not only raised over $500 in the past 12 months but also diverted several items from going to the landfill by providing them a second life. The Brentwood old clothes and electrical bins are located near the staff car park entrance on Heath street.

In Term 1 this year, 1340 kg of old clothes and 135 kg of electricals were collected from Brentwood SCR bins. The Brentwood Green Team would like to thank all community members for their support in utilising these bins and help us raise funds. To view the items that can be recycling through this program, please visit: http://scrg.com.au/contribute-things/

If you come across any old clothing and electricals during your spring cleaning over the holidays, please consider dropping them at the old textiles and electricals hubs at Brentwood.

The old textiles hub collected 1600 kg of old clothing in Term 2 this year.

Connected to the Earth 

Students from grades 7 to 9 connected to Earth by participating in a ‘sorting wastes’ activity during the pastoral care period on 29 March. In this activity, students were given 65 regularly used items at Brentwood and asked to sort them into the various streams of waste collection at our college. Students’ doubts about a few tricky recyclables were clarified by their mentor group teacher using the information provided to them by the Green Team. One interesting observation made by the students from participating in this activity is that we are throwing out several soft-plastic items into the landfill as we don’t have a soft-plastics recycling bin.

We encourage the community to read the information provided here regarding the seven waste streams operating at Brentwood. We seek your support in refusing, reusing, recycling and reduce the amount of waste that is sent to the landfill. We request families to pack nude food and avoid bringing soft-plastics to the college.

Compost Caddies

Brentwood has now introduced compost caddies across all the staff rooms. Students are to use the green compost bin in the garden for food waste. If not accessible, students are to use the general waste bins situated in all of the classrooms and the courtyards. 

Reused scrap paper notebooks 

There are several unclaimed print outs left at library photocopier every day. The library monitors with the help of our librarians started turning the unclaimed print ots into notepads. The monitors cut the single-sided papers and bind them into small booklets. The notepads can be collected for free by staff and students from the college library and main staffroom.


Waste audit 

The Brentwood Green Team carried out an annual audit of the waste collection bins on 11 September. General waste, paper recycling and commingled bins in the classrooms and courtyards were emptied on to tarpaulin and analysed.

The contents were sorted into four categories – recyclables, paper & cardboard, compost and general waste. A copy of the waste audit results is attached below. 

In summary, Brentwood has established the infrastructure (bins) and procedures (signage) to sort wastes before they are collected. In most cases the bins are being used correctly, however there are areas where contamination of contents is seen. It was disappointing to notice that some fresh food items were thrown into the bins.

Mondo visits Brentwood

Brentwood launched old textiles and electrical recycling hubs in term 2 this year. There has been a positive response from our community for this initiative. Brentwood raised $250 from our donations into these hubs last term.

Mondo, the official mascot of SCR recycling group visited Brentwood this week to raise awareness on these recycling hubs to the students. Mondo received a warm welcome and several hugs from staff and students. 

We request our community members to give their old clothes, handbags, shoes, toys and clothing accessories a second life by donating at our recycling hubs in the staff car park. Please help Brentwood raise funds and protect the environment through this initiative.

Old textiles and electricals recycling hubs 

This week, Brentwood Secondary College has launched 'Textiles and Electricals Recycling Hubs' at the campus. The bins are located at the entrance gate to the college near the staff car park on the left.

The hubs are open to our community to donate items for recycling. Here is a list of items that can be recycled through this program:

Clothes Hub                                                                            

 Electronics hub 

Items collected from the hubs will be sorted by SCR group (http://scrg.com.au/) and sent to people overseas that need them. The program provides both environmental and economic benefits to the college.

Students from the Green Team have also attended an information session on the SCR bins. 

Commingled recycling bins 

In 2018, brentwood has introduced commingled recycling bins in all staffrooms and offices. 

Recycling incursion 


Give your clothes a second life 

Fast fashion is addictive and it’s designed to be. Australians are currently disposing of 6,000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste every 10 minutes!!! (source: War on Waste 2017). 

Whilst it’s not ideal to tell people not to buy new clothes, we can encourage them to purchase pre-loved clothing. It’s not only good for the environment, good for humanity and your soul, it’s easy, fun and affordable.

This month, the Brentwood Green Team is launching a ‘Clothes Exchange and Recycling’ program. The program involves students bringing in their old clothes and exchanging them for free with other students on an advertised date. Any clothing left behind after each session will go to the ‘Textiles Recycling Hubs’ located at the entrance of the college. SCR group (http://scrg.com.au/) collects the clothes from these hubs and delivers them to the hands of people across the world who need them, thus reducing billions of litres of water usage and CO2 emissions. 

The first trial session of clothes-exchange is open to all Year 11 students on May 9 2018 (Wednesday) during lunch break in M1 classroom. Students are encouraged to actively participate in this campaign and give their old clothes a second life.

Landcare youth projects- winner


Brentwood was successful in securing the $1100 grant from the Landcare Youth Projects. The grant money was used to purchase an electric composter and an Aerobin. The electric composter was provided to the food-tech classes and the Aerobin was placed in the Green Space. Composting is one of the ways that Brentwood aims to offset its emissions by diverting the food waste from going to the landfill.

Composting and recycling workshop 

On June 29, the education officers from the Monash council, Daniel Berry and Deb Patman, ran incursions on composting and recycling for the students in the Green Team and SRC. Students were provided with information regarding the right procedure to setup and run a compost bin. Doubts related to recycling that

participants had were clarified during this workshop.


War on waste competition 


The Brentwood Green Team ran a competition based in the popular ABC TV program, 'War on Waste'. Staff and students answered questions based on the series through a Google form. The top achievers were rewarded with prizes.


Mobile muster webinar

The Green team participated in a Webinar to chat to the educational officers at Mobile Muster. Some of the facts that we learnt from the webinar: old mobile phones, mobile batteries, USBs, mobile phone chargers can all be recycled. It is estimated there are over 23.5 million unwanted mobiles in homes around Australia. Resource recovery from these handsets reduces the need to mine 36000 tonnes of precious metal ore each year, thus preventing 9000 tonnes of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions. 

Brentwood is glad to be a part of the solution. Brentwood donated 7.85 kg of old mobile phones to Mobile Muster during 2014-2015.

Composting awareness week 

We were lucky to have an educational officer, Ms Anna Mezzetti from the Monash Council, attend our team meeting on 23 April to run a workshop on 'Composting'. Ms Mezzetti presented us with a big composting bin and described to us the proper procedure in composting. The Green team will set up this brand new compost bin in our garden as a part of 'International Composting Awareness Week (4-10 May). 

If you are interested in knowing more about composting, you can hear it from the guru, Costa Georgiadis, himself. http://www.foodknowhow.org.au/waste-know-how/fact-sheets-videos/

Green teams visit to VISY recycling 

The Green team had some unforgettable learning experiences this fortnight. On 13 May we went on an educational tour to VISY recycling in Dandenong. The half-day excursion involved learning about the correct procedures in recycling. The education officer at VISY gave a presentation on the process involved in recycling various materials. Later, we took a tour of the recycled cardboard boxes manufacturing unit at VISY. Did you know that Pizza boxes could go into recycle bins after use? Please have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3N2riHILrg

Paper recycling bins audit 

The Green Team took an audit of the paper recycling bins placed in the TLC and G-block. We were thrilled to see that all of the bins were almost full, which shows that all of the classes are using these bins and not dropping paper into the general waste bins. We have estimated the total mass of the paper to be 7.5kg, collected from 10 paper recycling bins. The team is considering introducing more paper recycling bins into other classes at the college.