It’s not every day you get to put the mayor in the trash. 

A theatrical skit, which had students and audience members representing different types of waste, formed part of a public presentation held at the Waitaki Boys’ High School auditorium last week (June 28). 

Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher, who represented type six and seven plastics, was allowed into an exclusive Trash Club, from which most waste was barred.

The presentation was a chance for the Waitaki Girls’ and Waitaki Boys High Schools’ Enviroclubs to tell their story and share learnings about the importance of waste diversion.

Waitaki District Council’s Enviroschools facilitator Lucianne White has been working with the Enviroclubs.

“Sheer determination from the Envirostudents has resulted in great progress, and they are not stopping there,” Lucianne said.

“They are now starting to spread the word about the necessity of getting organics out of landfill – being able to speak directly to their peers is huge.”

New Zealand is one of the highest generators of waste per person in the world, and the second-worst recycling nation in the OECD.

New Zealanders generate around 17-million tonnes of waste per year – with 13m of that going straight to landfill.

Food scraps in landfill produce large amounts of methane - a major contributor to climate change.

Waitaki Boys’ and Waitaki Girls’ Enviroclubs have been keen to tackle food waste at their schools for some time, but they were really driven to address it when the Government’s Healthy Lunches in Schools programme came into effect.

While the programme saw a decrease in plastic packaging at school, it also saw an increase in food scraps going into the landfill bins.

Both Enviroschools trialled some different solutions and there were successes as well as setbacks, with a lot learnt along the way.

Waitaki Boys’ applied to the Waitaki Waste Minimisation Fund last year to set up an organics processing system at the school. 

They were keen for this system to not only address food waste but to be a valuable cross-curricular learning tool.

Waitaki Boys’ Enviroschools teacher Sam Henehan is excited about the potential, and so far the social studies, biology, agriculture and construction departments have either contributed to the project or used it for their studies. 

The wider faculty is also on board, with bokashi bins in the staffroom proving a hit.

The school has now started to collaborate with Waitaki Girls to see if they can set up a system to collect and process their food waste as well.

Waitaki Girls High School journey has also been one of trial and error. Open air food scraps bins resulted in an influx of seagulls, and a wheelie bin alternative proved too cumbersome to manoeuvre.  

Waitaki Girls Enviroschools teacher Jess Wright said behaviour change is the biggest challenge – and ensuring students take the time to make sure waste is correctly sorted, around multiple collection points in the school grounds, has also been a problem. 

Addressing this particular issue has resulted in a radical change at Waitaki Boys’ which now requires all students to eat lunch together in the dining hall.

Previously, lunchtimes saw students dotted around the school with the hostel kids eating lunch separately in their dining space. 

Enviro prefect Cameron Bond admitted communal dining was a bit unwelcome at first for a lot of students, but they are now enjoying a more inclusive and social space that encourages big groups to mingle.

Dining in the same place means students can be funnelled through one narrow exit after lunch, which allows food scraps and other waste to be correctly sorted and supervised by teachers or student leaders.

Food scraps are composted and used in a worm farm system, with guidance and advice from Robbie Dick, founder of Central Otago’s Wormworx , a WBHS Old Boy and enthusiastic supporter of the project.