MOTHER Teresa College in Baldivis has been rewarded for its proactive approach to waste management with a $6595 Waste Wise School grant.
The school diverts all it’s food waste between a flock of chooks, a squirm of worms and compost bins that in turn fertilise their big vegetable patch which students lovingly tend.
Liquid from their worm farms is kept not just for the garden but is sold to the community.
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READ NOWTasty homemade pesto, fresh produce and eggs from their sustainability garden are also sold.
The chooks were hatched from eggs by year one and two students.
They live a free range lifestyle around the school grounds with the exception of lunchtime when the girls tend to show too keen an interest in student lunches.
The grant allowed the school to build a big greenhouse, chicken coop, paper making tubs (for waste paper), food scrap collection bins, worm farms and compost bins.
MLA Reece Whitby was impressed at how the school had embraced sustainability.
“Congratulations to Mother Teresa Catholic College on their grant, I am excited to see their project take shape,” he said.
“It’s great to see the kids getting involved in composting and recycling and learning about the environment.”
Rockingham John Calvin School also received a grant worth $2188.
It is for a worm farm, compost tumblers and recycling bins for foods scraps and other waste.
Environment Minister Stephen Dawson has announced more than $100,000 for the Waste Wise Schools program.
Applications for the next round of grants opened on August 6 until September 7.
For more information visit the Waste Authority’s website at http://www.wasteauthority.wa.gov.au/programs/grants/.