The program has been rolled out to Noranda, Hampton Park, Embleton and Maylands primary schools.
Students take part in on-going workshops delivered by the City’s waste contractor, Cleanaway. The workshops aim to teach students about waste minimisation and management through implementing the reduce, reuse and recycle principles.
Cr McKenna said feedback from a parent questionnaire given to Hampton Park Primary School showed 98 per cent of parents stated their own knowledge of recycling increased as a result of their child’s participation in the program.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWCr McKenna said the City hoped to expand the program to more schools.
“The educational and interactive sessions include hands-on ‘sorting’ activities and ways to reuse items,” he said.
“Children were actually quite surprised when they realised how many everyday items end up in landfill. They were keen to address this by sharing what they learnt about effective recycling with their family members.”
Cr McKenna said educating children about sustainable practices will reduce contamination in the long term.
“The City incurs a cost to collect and process recyclable materials from people’s homes however if they are contaminated, the items end up in landfill anyway,” he said.
MORE: NBN announces construction to begin in dozens of Perth suburbs before end of 2017
MORE: WA’s first 9-star energy rated apartment complex to be built
MORE: Mandurah Foreshore Winter Wonderland hopes to kick start up turn in business fortunes