Litter and Waste

One of the biggest environmental issues in Ireland is Litter and Waste. The Green-Schools programme is hugely important in raising an awareness of Litter and Waste and in educating schools and the wider community on our collective responsibility, in reducing the amount of waste we produce.
Recent research on the economic value of the Green-Schools programme to schools in Ireland has revealed that the programme has saved schools in Ireland a minimum 2 million euro in waste, electricity, water and fuel costs this year. The results reveal a minimum of 12 tonnes of waste diverted from landfills in Ireland every school day by schools undertaking the programme. Because the programme also involves the wider community the overall savings to the wider community could be several times the 2 million euro saved by the schools involved.
In September 2009 , Killina N.S. began working towards our first green flag.
We formed a committee comprising teachers, pupils , parents and school staff. A representative from each class was elected to the committee through a democratic vote.
Our 2009-2010 committee included: Kayleigh , John , Peter ,Megan ,Rebecca , Emma , Conor and Rebecca
The committee met frequently and undertook an environmental review of Litter & Waste in our school. All classes monitored and recorded the levels of recyclable and non-recyclable waste produced.
An action plan was devised, with our main target being the reduction of waste by 30% within a year and by 50% within two years.
A “Day of Action “ was held ,the highlight of this day being the performance of” Green Schools Raps”.
The winners of the rap competition were: Lyrics from our ”Rap Competition “ inspired the formulation of our” Green Schools Logo”. Our Green Schools Logo is :
“We put more in the recycling bin, Then less will end up in the landfill.”
A new committee was elected in Sept 2010. This included: Shannon, Justin , Mairéad , Tammie , Lily- Mae , Martin , Caraand Tara .
Other highlights of our Green-Schools programme to date include

• - A Poster Competition to promote the theme ”Reduce ,Reuse, Recycle”
• - A “Recycled Fashion Competition”

Pupils from all classes designed , made and modelled highly creative fashion items including hats, handbags ,sports jerseys ,dresses ,jackets, ties, footwear, jewellery etc.
A huge variety of recycled materials were used and the designs were highly creative. The pupils had great fun modelling their fashion in our catwalk show.
Choosing winners was extremely difficult .However we were delighted to have Margaret ,(one of our parent reps on the Green-Schools Committee ) and who also works in fashion design to assist with this task.
The winners were:

• - Junior Infants - Tara, Cara and Louis 
  - Senior Infants - Cara ,Callum and Kayleigh
  - First Class - Caoimhe, Aaron and Zoe
  - Second Class - Lily-Mae, Donal and Cathal
  - Third Class - Charlie, Sarah-Jane and Lucy
  - Fourth Class - Jill, Mairéad and Jamie
  - Fifth Class - James, Conor and Lauren
  - Sixth Class - Molly, Jean Gill and Shannon
  
• You can see some of the “Recycled Fashion” designs.
• In Spring 2011, we submitted our application for our first Green Flag. We had a visit from An Taisce and we were thrilled to be awarded our First Green School Flag.
• Our application was highly commended by An Taisce. Mrs Noonan, Shannon, Justin and Mairead collected the flag at a ceremony in Croke Park Conference Centre on May 23rd.
• We celebrated the raising of our ‘Green Flag’ at our school in June!