TRAFFIC LIGHT BINS

GOAL: To further reduce our school waste going to landfill 

We have adopted the TRAFFIC LIGHT bin system to try to help us with this.  

This system is seen in households, businesses and attractions all over New Zealand. 

RED: LANDFILL BIN

• STOP! Re - think - can the rubbish go somewhere else? 

• This is the last resort! Mainly broken, snapped things.

• NO FOOD in this bin - take lunchbox items HOME or compost

         

ORANGE: RECYCLING 

• Things must be CLEAN and DRY

> Paper or cardboard 

> HARD plastic numbered 1 - 6 

> Metal or glass 

• NO FOOD in this bin

• NO soft plastic in this bin

        

     

GREEN: FRUIT & VEG SCRAPS 

• Fruit and veggie scraps for the worms!

• Paper towels, tissues & paper bags can go in here too

• NO sandwiches, cake or pies - take these HOME! 

      

Prize Giving 2020

 

On Thursday the 10th of December Howick Primary School had their 2020 Prize Giving. 

Congratulations to all students that received a certificate, were nominated for a trophy and a big well done to trophy winners!

The Environment and Sustainability award

was very difficult to choose a Year 6 winner for

as they have all done such wonderful work with our waste minimisation programme, composting, gardening, school blog and Enviro Art this year!

A big well done to Manroop Sandhu

for receiving the Environment and Sustainability award!

Enviro Holiday message

 After a challenging year with Covid-19 and lockdowns it has brung us to the end of 2020!(Thank goodness!)

But there has been things that some people are proud about; one of those things for the enviro team is helping our school reach enviro bronze.

We are not the only ones that did it… YOU guys did lots of it!

Many of you had a wrapper free lunch and some people volunteered to help with the waste wizard bins at events.

So we want to thank you guys for helping us including all the wonderful parents for encouraging your kids and the staff!

We would like to say a big thank you to all the year 6's especially that helped us. We wish you a great time at your new intermediate and hope you keep up all your hard work for the environment.

Remember that keep up the hard work for saving the environment in the holidays and have a great holiday and a great 2021.

THANK YOU!

Jackson Barker (Room 3)

Enviro Round up 2020!

WELL DONE and THANK YOU!!

This year we have been blessed to have the most amazing team of Enviro students who worked passionately and tirelessly all year long! Their commitment has seen us accomplish so much.

I am sad to say farewell to 3 of our team members but excited for 2021!

Here's to the HPS awesome Enviro team!

Happy Holidays everyone :)

Gardening Time!

Wednesday 3rd December, a lovely sunny afternoon, the gardening team met after lunch by the gardening shed wearing our sunhats and sunscreen slip, slop, slapped on! 

We split into teams and received our tasks from Miss Long.

At first I was teamed up with Roman and Malu. We had to fetch some cardboard boxes, remove the Sellotape and then give it to Charlie and Noah to line the new planter box. 

Then I joined Charlie and Noah’s team with my mum, Anita who was a parent helper. Our task was to line the new planter box and to fill it with vegetable mix. Noah scooped the mix in with his spade and I flattened it with my trowel. The box took about five big bags of vegetable mix. The bags were very heavy and my mum had to open them with my trowel because the bags may have gases inside that can be harmful. We got a bucket to keep the empty bags in so that we didn’t have to make endless trips to the bin.

One of the other teams, with Jackson, Karen (another parent helper), Anushka and Kaitlyn planted several herbs in one of the old planter boxes. Karen chatted to us about herbal tea and how to make it and also what herbs we can use when cooking various dishes, yum! 

Another team, with Kayden, Roman, Malu and Miss Long, took soil from the compost to help us fill the new planter box.

Caelyn harvested some of the parsnips. She and Harriet watered the plants in the boxes where the herbs had been planted and then all of the other boxes as well so that all of the plants got an equal share of water.

Some students found a millipede in the compost box. They picked it up and held it before putting it back, gently.

I am looking forward to seeing how our new herbs grow and excited to see what goes into our new planter box!

Kieran 

Year 4, Room 6

Waste Minimisation Events

 This is our November update.

In this part you will find:

1. The School Disco

2. The Family Fun Night

3. The Waste Expo

Hope you enjoy!

Manroop Sandhu (Room 2)

SCHOOL DISCO

At this one and only school disco on the 19th November we collected a total of:

• 8.64 kg of waste

•  7.87 kg was diverted from landfill.

• This means that 91% was diverted from the landfill altogether. 

It was so shocking to us that we saved 91% of waste going to landfill that was put into the compost, recycling and even people putting things in the soft plastic bin!

FAMILY FUN NIGHT

On our annual Family Fun Night on Thursday 25th November we collected :

• Total of 7.95kg of waste

• 7.44kg was diverted from landfill

• 7.44 / 7.95 = 94% diverted from landfill altogether

So now in total we saved 94% of rubbish going into landfill and going into the other categories like the soft plastic, food scraps/compost and recycling!

Waste Expo

On the Tuesday 24th of November 2020, the Waste Expo took place in our school hall. Since the year 5 and 6’s were at Rainbows End, the very kind Juniors decided to take our place in the Waste Expo which was a huge success. The Waste Expo was a group of companies like "Love Food Hate Waste", Compost Collective, "Clean Plate Less Waste" and many more. At this event we shared our waste minimisation successes which took a lot of effort!

Beach Clean up

On Wednesday 18th of November the juniors at Howick Primary School went to Eastern beach. This all started with Miss Long teaching everyone about water and the water shortage and how the beaches are used as a fun water place. 

Miss Long also said that the rubbish on the beach is polluting the oceans. 

Some of the children thought that if we clean up the beach we can reduce pollution. This act is called empowered students. 

We got there and had 5 different activities; obstacle course, collecting seaweed to make fertiliser, playground fun, sand castles and finally, cleaning the beach. 

When cleaning the beach we found: 

• 158 pieces of soft and hard plastic.

• 3 pieces of wood

• 43 pieces of card and paper.

• 9 pieces of metal.

• 1 piece of rubber.

• 5 pieces of glass and 

• 1 piece of other rubbish

So in total we found 220 pieces of rubbish

Click HERE to see the full results...

As you can see from above, over half of the rubbish was made from plastic.

We are an ENVIRO BRONZE SCHOOL!

 Yay!! Thank you everyone for helping us achieve our bronze award.

On the 11th of November 2020 at 11 o’clock, we were awarded the Bronze award, Cate was the amazing lady that awarded us the certificate. We were thrilled to hear that we were awarded a certificate to show we are an Enviro school. 

The Enviro team would like to thank everyone who put their hand in to help us out; we are proud of our amazing enviro art group and gardening crew. Our amazing enviro teacher, Miss Long decided to teach every class about the environment and the water shortage and how that is that affecting us. 

People that have been wrapper free, and our Compost bin monitors have contributed too. There are far too many people to name that have helped us out in this but thank you everyone and we can’t thank you enough for helping us with this project.

Here are some photos of our amazing projects throughout this year.

By Manroop (Room 2)