At assembly yesterday we were visited by Scott from the Cairns City Council. Scott spoke to us about recycling. We have several initiatives at St Francis Xavier’s. We have three recycle bins where we collect paper and cardboard, Year 4A is collecting poppers and we also collect used marker pens.

Our Wellbeing Leaders are also responsible for helping with Reduce Rubbish Thursdays. Reduce Rubbish Thursdays means that there will be no food bins available to students on a Thursday and they will need to take any rubbish home. Parents can help with this by ensuring that students don’t have disposable rubbish on Thursdays and have an esky or lunch box that they can put any rubbish into. This means all rubbish e.g.. banana peels, empty yoghurt containers, or apple cores will be coming home.

The aim of this programme is to put words into action. In the Pope’s encyclical Laudato Si’ on Care for our common home we are encouraged to take steps to care for the earth. This is also supported by the Australian Curriculum Cross Curriculum Priority of Sustainability which states “Sustainability addresses the ongoing capacity of Earth to maintain all life. Sustainable patterns of living seek to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of future generations”. The students become aware of caring for the environment through learning in the classroom and by having Reduce Rubbish Thursday we hope to encourage our children to become more aware of and responsible for the rubbish that they produce and thus become more environmentally aware and putting their learning into real action.

This is also an opportunity for parents to see exactly what their students are eating during the day. While most students eat what is packed in their lunch boxes, we still have many students who throw items like fruit or sandwiches in the bins. By not having bins they will need to bring any uneaten items home.