The EarthSmart Schools program begins with a FREE waste assessment, which is conducted annually for a duration of 3 years. The waste assessment allows your school to monitor the reduction of waste achieved from year to year.
A waste assessment will help your school through:
- Identifying major waste types and estimating weekly and yearly quantities;
- Assessing the potential volume and quantity of waste that could be reduced by implementing recycling;
- Reviewing the placement and numbers of waste bins required and estimating the potential waste services required by your school;
- Identifying potential cost savings (including potential State Waste Levy savings);
- Reviewing current waste practices; and
- Highlighting opportunities to improve systems and management of waste.
Waste Assessment FAQ's
Waste assessments will be occurring during term one, two and four this year. Schools who registered prior to 2012 will receive their waste assessment in term one. Schools who registered this year will receive them in term 2. If they haven’t already, one of our EarthSmart Schools team members will be in touch with you over the next few weeks to schedule your waste assessment.
The aim of the waste assessment is to provide benchmarking data for your school to plan its waste reduction and recycling actions over the next 12 months.
It will help your school measure the success of your actions and provide valuable information to determine what percentage of recyclable and/or compostable materials could potentially be diverted from the waste stream.
The visit may take between 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the school, and the number of areas and people needed to be involved. The assessment is ideally commenced prior to a lunch break period and completed following the break. This allows waste streams from both classrooms and eating areas to be viewed with minimal disruption to the school.
We ask that you complete pages 2 and 3 of our waste assessment survey form prior to the visit, as you may need to gather this information from office staff, cleaners, grounds-person, or other teachers. It will help save some time on the day of the visit. Please also browse through the other pages of the waste assessment form to familiarise yourself with the information that will be collected on the day.
The contact officer or nominated person will be required to escort CQLGA staff around the school and provide sufficient information for the waste assessment to be completed. Please note that CQLGA staff will not be able to undertake the waste assessment in school grounds or buildings unless they are accompanied throughout the visit.
After registering for the EarthSmart Schools program, a CQLGA staff member will telephone to organise a date for the initial waste assessment. Times and dates for the subsequent assessments will be arranged at a later time.
