As part of our studying in Year 11 EAL/D class, we visited places that are related to the documentary series of “ War on Waste” that we have been studying this term. One of the places that we visited was the Food Pantry. The Food Pantry makes good food affordable and accessible to all people. For instance, if a person has a low income, or is unemployed, or struggling to get by, shopping at the Food Pantry will help stretch people’s budget. The Food Pantry has all sorts of good quality groceries and household products at affordable prices for people, plus free fruit, vegetables, and bread. The free fruit, vegetables, and bread are gained through a point system where customers convert money for points to buy food for example customers have to spend $ 5 dollars to get 10 points. Each product is marked with a point. The food in the Food Pantry store is the rescued excess food and products from local supermarkets and businesses, as well as requesting food from Food Bank of NSW.

After our visit, we thought that the government should help the Food Pantry to  launch a campaign to stop the wasteful disposal of food in Australia, and to stop supermarkets from destroying unsold edible food. Craig Reucassel in “War on Waste” (our text) talks to the supermarkets about this issue so the visit to Food Pantry made the documentary more realistic for me. The whole idea could help reduce landfill!

Tara Al Khafaji, Year 11

One of the recycling centres that we visited in Marrickville was “Reverse Garbage Centre”.This centre highly supports the idea of the documentary we are studying about in class “War on Waste”.In order to have a quick insight of how garbage is being repurposed and regenerated in some places in Sydney, “Reverse garbage centre” is the best place to visit. This centre aims to change the way people look at the different waste resources, in order to make a small differences in the way that waste is managed and repaired. This centre is managed with the support of some old teachers and volunteers from the community who are motivated by providing better environmental conditions for the next generations. Reverse Garbage is a very large and crowded garage, however, organised. When we first arrived, one of the staff members “Rachael” came and spoke to us about how “reverse garbage” is managed. Every year,” reverse garbage” centre accepts 35,00 cubic metres of items that might’ve been thrown into the landfill. They send small trucks to the streets in search of any garbage or waste items from factories, businesses or even public houses that can be reused in a creative way. These items are then placed in their categories and ready for sale. Customers have access to buy everything they want at extremely low prices. The purpose of the committee is to help reduce the waste and also support some of the other small organisations and education centres. This is done by donating a small financial support of the money they receive as income or materials for charities. Moreover, it is important to mention that this centre is not profitable for the members leading the place. As they are using this money to support other organisations. Furthermore, many people will find the place very interesting especially art teachers, renovators and creative people. As an evidence, in the centre, you can find various art, design, decoration, craft equipment and tool for a very low price compared to the other shops.

To conclude with, “reverse garbage” centre is very interesting and useful place that aims to change consumer and supermarkets behaviours about regenerating waste, hence,less waste being thrown in landfills. I think that “reverse garbage” highly supports our study of “War on Waste” documentary because it is evidence of making a difference in society by reducing the waste thrown in landfills.

Dalin Shimonka, Year 11

As we visited the Bower Reuse and Repair Shop, the shop was overcrowded with items because of the huge amount of things that people are throwing away. The main point of this shop is to fix the things that the people think are rubbish. The Bower Reuse and Repair Shop has a small truck, that goes around the city twice a week to collect people’s rubbish, such as furniture, books, household items, tools, electrical appliances and then the staff try to fix them or re-purpose them for alternative use. After this then the items are sold to the public.However there is another way to collect things like the Customers can donate and bring items to be fixed for a small fee and or learn to fix or re-purpose items such as, lamps or toasters. I did not know that they were also fixing the doors for the houses as well, when we spoke to the staff there they showed us the doors for houses. These doors were very old, however the doors were very strong because the wood is very strong not like  new doors.  In my opinion the shop is very useful as they are collecting people’s rubbish and they are recycling it and selling it to the public.

This shop is supporting the idea of recycling the old items, like our text “War on Waste is promoting. For example if they did not collect the items that can be fixed, the items’ fate would be in the landfill. Therefore, we have to support their idea of recycling of old items. If you do not need something another person may need it, think of other people’s needs.

Sandy Al Faro, Year 11

 Vinnies is one of the charity organisations that reuses by selling second-hand clothes and other items to assist people in need. Vinnies Newtown where we visited, gets their donation from three resources. First from the public via a chute and from the St Vincent de Paul distribution Centre, and third from other Vinnies that are located in a higher economic living area (where the clothes may be higher quality). We were shown behind the scenes by the manager, Megan. The clothes are sorted into several purposes some clothes are ready to be sold at low prices, and some are classified into rags for export overseas or to mechanics and artists for use, whereas, some are not useful and go into the rubbish.  This connected with me since watching our text “War on Waste (ABC News, 2017) as one of the main themes that is addressed is our obsession with fast fashion. However, this is also a global issue and having these organisations like Vinnies, helps the environment and the community positively.

Recycling of clothes and bric-a-brac reduces the number of wasted clothes and goods that go into the landfill and people are able to  reuse items and clothes.

Diana Asi, Year 11