Our goal is to become a leader in sustainability and ignite passion in our students to be lifelong advocates for the environment. Small changes can make a big difference. We see that when our students have ‘hands-on’ learning experiences in sustainability, it makes them feel empowered to make a difference.
We are an accredited Waste Wise school and member of Sustainable Schools WA. In 2017 we joined ‘Climate Clever’, an online platform that allows us to monitor our waste and electricity usage. We see the impact of our sustainability programs and can share our successes with our students and the parent community.
We have developed a whole school sustainability program with a vision for continuous improvement.
Our whole-school programs include:
- Waste Wise Warrior team – students manage ouring whole school composting system;
- Gardening Club;
- Power Rangers – students monitor unnecessary power usage in classrooms
- 3-bin recycling system in the playground and classroom blocks
- Battery recycling
- Pen and marker recycling
- LED lights installed across the school
; - Digital and online communications to reduce paper usage
; - Regular whole-school clean-ups events
- Outdoor classroom
- Tree planting projects
- Solar panels
Reducing waste to landfill by 75% through waste avoidance and recovery projects.
As a proud Waste Wise school, Beeliar Primary has a number of ongoing systems that enable waste avoidance and recovery with items such as paper, cardboard, food waste and single-use packaging.
3-Bin Recycling System
A new 3-bin system was introduced in 2020 to separate our waste streams and maximise the recycling opportunities available. Every bin station throughout the school now has bins.
- Yellow bin for co-mingled recycling. This includes paper, hard plastics, aluminium and steel cans, glass bottles and jars and large milk or juice cartons.
- White bin for 10c refundable recycling. We return eligible containers and earn money for the school through the ‘Containers for Change’ program.
- Red bin for landfill
This had dramatically reduced our waste going to landfill, ensured that a large percentage is recycled and taught our students about good recycling habits.
Fruit & vegetable scraps
All classrooms (plus staffroom/wet areas) have a scraps bin to collect fruit and vegetable scraps.
Vegetable Garden & Worm Farm
Once a week we have our Gardening Club – students are involved in many different duties such as planting, mulching, watering and picking of vegetables.
Students in gardening club also help to put our ‘self-grown’ compost onto the garden. Students can see the recycling loop in action.
Fruit and vegetable waste is also given to our worm farm and managed by students.
Chickens
The highly anticipated addition of chickens in 2021 created much interest and enjoyment for the students. They make short work of the food scraps from the canteen and provide us with fresh eggs in return. Student helpers are responsible for checking for eggs each day, food and water and cleaning out their coop.
Batteries
We have partnered with Ecobatt and placed collection bins in every classroom block as well as the front office for local families to drop off their old batteries.
Pen and Marker Recycling
In 2023 we partnered with the Beeliar Community Association (BCA) to introduce a pen and marker recycling program via Officeworks. Every classroom block now has a collection bin. These are regularly emptied by BCA to be taken to Officeworks for recycling.
Reducing our electricity usage by over 35% via electricity reduction programs.
Our commitment to sustainable practices also covers our electricity usage and we have implemented a number of strategies to reduce our overall usage.
Power Ranger Program
Every classroom has a Power Ranger poster and can receive ‘energy mites’ as recognition for turning off lights and interactive whiteboards at recess and lunch. Our teams of Year 5 students check on classrooms once a week and at the end of the term the winning block receives a reward.
LED lights
Over a number of years, we steadily swapped out our old incandescent and fluorescent lights to be replaced with energy efficient LED lights. This has made a significant impact on our overall energy usage.
Solar Panels
In 2024 we had a new 30kW solar system installed. It will make a tremendous difference to our power bills and the electricity being drawn from the grid. We are looking forward to seeing the results on Climate Clever.
Recent Climate Clever results
These graphs highlight our Climate Clever data.
The green graph shows the annual waste being produced as a school. Since 2017 we have reduced our overall whole school waste by 47 tonnes (over 75%)
In 2023 we also collected and composted over 500kg of fruit and vegetable scraps and sent 4500 containers for change to be recycled.
The orange graph shows our annual electricity usage. Since 2017 we have reduced our electricity usage by over 35% or 65kW.
Whole school programs
Every year we run a number of whole school programs that offer our students a ‘hands-on’ experience of sustainability and the feeling of making a difference.
Tree planting
Our Year 4 students planted an extensive bush tucker garden in 2022, with the support of the Tucker Bush schools program. It is located near block 4, just in front of the yarning circle.
Whole School clean-ups
Our students participate in two whole school clean-up events every year, collecting rubbish from across the school and surrounding bushland. With ongoing support from City of Cockburn, Keep Australia Beautiful WA Beeliar Community Association, every student has the opportunity to make a difference, beautify our school and look after the environment.
Networking and program partners
- Sustainable Schools WA
- Climate Clever
- City of Cockburn
- Beeliar Community Association
- Ecobatt
- Officeworks
- Sustainable Outdoors
