Could you put your school dustbins on a diet next term?

It is fitting that my last talk for this academic year was at the school where 'it all started'.

Yesterday I was invited to be guest speaker at an evening to celebrate success at Henry Box School in Oxfordshire.  Last summer I worked with a group of Henry Box students to create this lovely Henry Box version of my book, 101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for Free, which you can read below.

But that's not when 'it all started'.  Rewind a few years...

I’ve been a Henry Box parent since 2005. We’re a social household and so I’ve seen many, many Henry Box students over the years coming to my house. And many Henry Box students have asked me this question:

“Anna, where’s the rubbish bin?”

 But we don’t really have one.

" So I have to ask the question: “What have you got?”

Having to ask this question, made me realise that we see things a bit differently in the Pitt household. When we no longer need or want something, we don’t see rubbish, we see a resource to re-purpose or to pass on to someone else, whether that’s by giving it away to friends or family, taking it to a charity shop or recycling or composting it. We almost always find a use for what we no longer want to use and as a result our landfill bin, spends most of the time neglected and lonely and gets put out once a year with nothing much in it.

Regular visitors to my house have got used to this over time, but after one particular gathering when those same questions arose, I asked my daughter, Jen, whether people recycled at school. She said there are recycling bins, but people don’t often seem to use them. They just think RUBBISH and so they throw it away. Lots of recyclable stuff just gets put into landfill bins.

And that’s what got me thinking about how I could try to encourage more young people to think RESOURCE rather than RUBBISH? How do I encourage young people to WASTE LESS? I feel that Henry Box students set me that challenge and my book and the Henry Box book is part of my finding a solution to that challenge.

Since writing my book, I've spoken to well over 1000 wonderful young people at various schools, challenging them to waste less and think RESOURCE rather than RUBBISH.  And I've put this challenge to various groups of adults too.   I hope I've inspired a few people to WASTE LESS and THINK MORE.  Will a few more toothpaste tubes and cereal boxes get recycled?  Maybe a few more people will check the packaging and choose the pizza that has a compostable or widely recyclable cardboard base rather than the rarely recycled polystyrene type?  Judging from the conversations I had yesterday evening following my talk, a few people learnt something or will see things a bit differently as a result.

Sometimes, though, the best part of speaking to groups of people about something you are knowledgeable and passionate about is the learning and inspiration you gain in return.  When I look back on this academic year I realise how much I've learnt from giving talks and running workshops.

Here are some highlights below.

Charlotte's tip for The Marlborough School version of 101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for Free made me realise that I'd completely lost the cycling habit.  I used to always walk to the village, but I would drive to my nearest town even though it is only five miles away.  I've now dusted off my bike and got back in the saddle and I'm making most journeys to town by bike. The lovely bunch of flowers I was presented with last night got a few comments on the way home as I cycled back from the Awards Evening with the flowers tucked into a pocket of my rucksack.

Charlotte's Tip

Alex (Year 5) asked me a question that really got me thinking: "Why do we have to save water when it rains all the time?"  What a great question!  I won't go into the answers right now, but I've written a whole new workshop with that as my title.

Sam's comment (Year 4) and the accompanying expression on his face when we discussed the fact that a hamburger has a water footprint of 2500 litres is one that will always stay with me.  He said "I'm blown away, Miss.  You've shocked me."   I'm still learning from that one!

Talks and workshops will resume from Wednesday 1st October 2014.  Dustbin Diet workshops should be booked by 15th October for schools who would like to create a book in time for Christmas (as workshops need to be completed by end November).

101 Ways but why?

Pilot Course at Marlborough School

In May and June of 2013 I held my first Dustbin Diet course at Marlborough school, Woodstock, with around a hundred and eighty Year 8 students.

We opened the session with a thought provoking short film trailer by photographer, Chris Jordan.

Here's the link if you'd like to take a look: http://www.midwayfilm.com.

The course had been kept a big secret.  The students and their parents were told that over the next few weeks they would be involved in an exciting project. (Yes, you bet, I was ecstatic that the teachers were so excited about my project!)  But the students had no idea what the course was about and what they were going to be doing.

As they watched the film, the room was in silence.  It was very moving.  I find it difficult to watch without a tear in my eye.

So in an atmosphere you could cut with a knife, the lead teacher, Mr Easterbrook, introduced me, and told the students that we were about to embark on something very powerful together, in relation to the film they had just seen.

There was an air of intrigue.  They all looked a bit unsure of what was about to happen.  But I've found that when people are a bit baffled, they tend to be very honest.  They don't know what's happening, so they can't think too deeply about the answers they are giving.  And when that happens, it is a good time to get an honest survey.

I first of all asked everyone to raise their hand if they recycled.  I know that Oxfordshire has pretty good recycling rates, and I've even been out with the recycling team supervisor in the catchment area for Marlborough school, so it was no surprise to me that everyone put their hand up to say they recycled.

But the next thing that happened blew me away! We'd move on to talking about landfill bins.  I asked them to stand up if they also used a landfill bin.  Not surprisingly, most people stood up.  But next, I asked them to sit down if they thought that, when they put their bin out for collection each fortnight,  it was mostly full up.

I couldn't believe how many people sat down.  I think you could see horror in my eyes!  And this was in an area I knew was pretty good for recycling.  Where did they get all their rubbish?  How did they manage to fill up a wheelie bin in just two weeks?  I can't remember the last time I put my bin out.  I certainly haven't yet put it out in 2013.  So to see a whole room full of people saying that they filled their bin every two weeks - well, my face says it all, doesn't it?

You can see some of the bin surveys on the photo gallery page of the Dustbin Diet website.

So, what else did we cover on our Dustbin Diet journey?

We looked at the differences between linear economies and circular economies.  We talked about the waste hierarchy.  We used story telling to understand 'habit' and we played some games to help us understand change management.

For the whole course, each student had the loan of a copy of 101 Ways to Live Cleaner and Greener for free, and they jumped at the idea of making their own version of the book.

Over the four week period, the students spent some time discussing and thinking about how they could live cleaner and greener for free.  The talked about it in assembly and in additional PSHE lessons they played some of the games developed to encourage a closer read of the facts and figures in the book and made posters about living cleaner and greener.

They had a collection box, in which they could submit their ideas and illustrations for the tip pages and the box gradually filled up.

When Mr Easterbrook delivered the said box of tips to me over the half term break, it was like opening up a goldmine.  There were some thoughtful contributions, some excellent tips and some great art work.  Some of the contributions demonstrated the need to delve deeper into the waste hierarchy as a concept and so deeper we delved.

By the fourth and final session, we had the makings of a book and we looked at it together in its pdf form on screen.  Watching the students' faces as they saw their tip come up on screen was truly magical.  For me it was the culmination of five years of research and development, but for all of us it was also the start of something new.  A waste revolution.

Was it worth it?  Well here's something that tells me it most certainly was (or indeed is)...

Two of the students wrote reviews of the book and the workshops.  Here they are for you to see.

In my next post, I will give you a sneak preview of some of the students' fantastic work!

If you would like to run a Dustbin Diet workshop in your school, take a look at the website for more information and booking details.

Welcome to The Dustbin Diet

The Dustbin Diet is a series of workshops for secondary schools, designed principally for Years 8 and 9 at a key time in their lives, as they become increasingly independent and more and more responsible for their own decisions about how they live their lives as consumers.

The Dustbin Diet is all about reducing waste and saving resources. But it is also about behaviour change. It is thought-provoking and enlightening and designed to make students think about their habits and subconscious decisions.

In this blog I plan to track the progress of the Dustbin Diet workshops, celebrate the achievements of the students and share news and views. Please do join the conversation!