Waste education program for Queensland schools

SITA Australia and Keep Queensland Beautiful are working together to improve awareness of waste issues through educating Queensland school students. This follows a recent study which found Queensland was the most littered mainland state in Australia.

Keep Queensland Beautiful CEO Rick Burnett said, “As Queensland has been the most-littered mainland state for the past three years, we believe behaviour change is vital, and starts in our schools by educating our children that littering is a thoughtless habit and must be stopped to safeguard our environment.”

WastEd Time is SITA’s in-school recycling and waste education program, designed by educators, that engages and inspires primary school children to understand the relationship between their waste and the environment. Keep Queensland Beautiful has also implemented its Cleaner Greener Schools Accreditation initiative to support schools in their aims to reduce litter and waste and to promote recycling.

Image courtesy of SITA Australia.

Through these two initiatives, the organisations aim to teach children the importance of litter prevention, waste reduction and recycling.

Peter Hudson, SITA’s Qld State General Manager, said the last 10 years have seen “a growing need to engage with community on all levels to increase awareness of waste as an environmental issue”, and the company is “proud to play an important role in educating our leaders of tomorrow about responsible waste management”.

He noted that the waste education curriculum is only one component of the company’s education commitment, saying, “SITA is also partnering with schools across Queensland to ensure they have the right types of recycling bins and learn to separate their paper, plastic, glass and food waste.”

For more information on SITA’s WastEd Time program, visit www.sita.com.au. To register for Keep Queensland Beautiful Cleaner Greener Schools Accreditation, visit http://www.keepqueenslandbeautiful.org.au/programs/cleaner_greener_schools/info.