Go Greener

In this week’s Go Greener, we look at Sustainability in the Senior and Primary libraries at SCEGGS and the TreadLightly shoe program.

Sustainability in the Senior and Primary libraries

Paper is a highly recyclable commodity and is one of the easiest things to recover. Each year the SCEGGS sends 11.32 tonnes of paper and cardboard for recycling. However, the disposal of damaged and unwanted books has always been an issue for librarians.

Last week saw the end of a long weeding process to update the collections of both libraries. Ms Conliffe and Mrs McBride partnered in the Sustainability Project supported by James Bennett publishers. Forty five boxes of books were taken by the company. The books will be sorted. Any better quality books will be donated to communities in need. Other books will be recycled into new products by pulping once the laminate has been removed or sold on E-bay or Amazon. The SCEGGS Librarians have nominated to donate all money raised from our books to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

So far, this program has saved 225,000 books from landfill. A wonderful win/win for all involved and for the environment.

Calling all old sport shoes and sneakers – we need you!

Did you know more than 110 million shoes makes their way to Australia each year? Did you know it takes up to 1000 years for the components of a sport shoe to decompose?

TreadLightly is a company that will collect old sport style shoes, take them to their recycling plant, extract the component and make them in to new products such as gym mats, floors and playgrounds. The list of acceptable shoe types is below:

Over the weekend have a clean out and collect all your old sport style shoes. Bring them to school from Monday 21 March to Friday 25 March and we will organise from them to go to TreadLightly for recycling. There will be wheelie bins located outside the General office in the Secondary school and Primary office as collection points. You are even welcome to bring single shoes but make sure they are the correct type for recycling!

Sue Zipfinger
Sustainability Co-ordinator