There is a lot happening in sustainability at PBC at the moment. We are making the final preparations to our new waste management process which will see us aim to reduce waste to landfill by more than 70%. Thanks to the generous support of Bendigo Bank Tugun Community Branch, we have built a facility that will allow us to sort and separate waste streams including paper, co-mingled recyclables, organic waste and beverage containers eligible for the Container Deposit Scheme (CDS), minimising the volume of waste we send to landfill.

Other grants have paid for the equipment that will be used to sort, separate and process different waste streams. A paper shredder will allow us to shred waste paper and sell it to a paper recycling company, turning what was previously a bill into an income stream.

Our new industrial composting machine has the capacity to process up to 100kg of organic waste per day, turning it into 10-20kg of garden-ready compost within 24 hours. To make use of the compost, in the next two weeks we are building the first stage of a new garden over near the hall. The new raised garden beds will be used to grow vegetables and herbs; these will be available for use in the canteen and by Hospitality students.

Separating and sorting our waste should also allow us to significantly increase the number of CDS-eligible bottles, cans and cartons we can collect a 10c refund on, generating even more income for sustainability-related projects here at PBC. To date, we have raised almost $11,000 from the CDS over the past eighteen months.

This new waste management process will begin in early Term 3 and we will post regular updates including photos, videos and statistics to let everyone know about the positive impact it will have on PBC’s environmental footprint.

#redsgogreen

Ms Benigno and Mr Pasley