Queen Elizabeth II High School's inventive project to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle their paper

16 July 2012

Download the Case Study

The project

Paper is a commodity used to excess in the modern world. In a busy school environment, thousands of pieces of paper are used every week; a good number thrown away. Our aim is to reduce, reuse and recycle paper at school.

From our tREe’CYCLE’ project we became aware of how many trees were being cut down to provide paper. Project started July 2008 after learning about paper recycling. We became conscious that too much paper was being wasted in school. The Isle of Man Government began issuing each school on the Island with recycling bins. We quickly organised the distribution of crisp boxes which were supplied to each classroom as paper recycling boxes. Over time we decided to decorate boxes. We started reusing paper by making paper briquettes, baskets, bracelets, seed pots and making our own paper. Our aim was to get as many students involved as possible.

The briquettes would be distributed to help elderly people; providing a green fuel and reusing local newspaper. Making our own paper and adding seeds enabled us to make cards and gift tags. These could then be planted after use and flowers could grow. Making seed pots would be cheap resource for our allotment club. We would reduce paper by setting up of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and school WIKI, monitor photocopying and hopefully see a significant reduction in paper circulation.

Delivering the project and linking it to the curriculum

Over 200 pupils involved in project including Eco-Committee, year 7 pupils during enrichment weeks, year 10 and 11 pupils in Lifeskills lessons, and students involved in Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

• Jul 2008 – Eco-day -Paper Recycling Workshop held by Department of Environment.
• Jan 2009– Eco-Committee met to try and find ways of cutting down and recycling paper.
• Recycling Boxes– Feb 2009 Old crisp boxes put in each classroom. Tutor monitors empty boxes into recycling bin. Peel Commissioners collect and send off-island to be recycled. May 2010, Paper recycling boxes decorated to stand out more in classroom, July 2011 - 55 fresh new bright and colourful boxes made and re-distributed.
• Over 3 years 80 students involved in making boxes.
• March 2009 – VLE officially launched used until Jan 2011.
• July 2009 – Eco Day – Bracelets made from old magazines.
• Jan 2010 – Photocopying GuidancePoster – Eco-committee make poster for staffroom to see if staff could reduce amount of photocopying to save paper and money. Monitor school photocopying– breakdown costs for each month.
• Jan 2010 – Feb 2010 – Paper Baskets– newspapers turned into waste paper bins.
• Jan 2011 to present – Wiki launched
• Paper Briquette Project – recycling newspapers to turn into fuel briquettes to hand out at Christmas for elderly. Sep- Dec 2009– 158 briquettes, 790 newspapers recycled. Sep-Dec 2010 -169 briquettes, 845 newspapers recycled. June -Dec 2011 – 280 briquettes, 1120 newspapers recycled. Over 3 years 60 students involved in project.
• May 2011 – July 2011 - Paper Making project – Paper making frames made. Paper made and Seed paper. Paper used for cards and gift tags. 36 students involved in project.
• June – July 2011 - Seed Pots - Seed pot maker purchased. Newspapers recycled into seed pots for gardening activities.8 students involved in project.

• Future– Continue updating Paper Recycling Boxes, making Paper Briquettes. Every Christmas the school gives 120 food hampers to elderly. Plan to make own paper Christmas cards to go with hampers. Keep up the school momentum behind online paperless work, with the new school “Wiki”.

Getting the pupils involved

Project led by Eco-Committee. Duke of Edinburgh’s Award students made paper briquettes for elderly as part of Volunteering. Yr10 Asdan students made briquettes as part of community project. Eco days were run in enrichment weeks and Yr 7 pupils made paper recycling boxes for classrooms and made own paper. Paper monitors chosen from each tutor group.

Funding

Paper Briquette makers borrowed from teachers. Old crisp boxes turned into paper recycling boxes. Paint from Art Department. Seeds donated. Paper pot makers borrowed from teachers.

Project support

Staff leant equipment, parents gave newspapers. Parent made frames for paper making. Department of Education set VLE and WIKI sites. Paper recycling bin from local government.

Challenges

Getting briquettes dried in time to distribute to elderly for Christmas was a challenge.

Benefits of being an Eco-School

• Photocopying- Photocopying costs reduced. April 2009 – March 2010 £14827.04. April 2010 – March 2011 £9659.07. Saved £5167.47.
• VLE- Since homework on VLE seen reduction in amount of paper. On Yr7 site 7,640 homeworks on line September 2010 to December 2010 saving 7,640 pieces of paper, nearly 1 tree (8300 sheets per tree).
• Paper Purchased - 635 reams of paper were used compared to 700 reams for same period Saved 3 trees (1 tree makes 17 reams).
• Paper Recycling- Before all waste paper thrown away. Now paper is taken to recycling bin and sent off island.Recycled newsprint is sold back to Isle of Man Newspapers who use it to produce our local papers and print articles about our project.
• Paper Briquettes- 615 paper briquettes were made recycling 2,446 newspapers (one briquette weighs 600g, newspaper 120g). Three kilograms of wood to create one kilogram of white paper, so saved 369kg of paper effectively prevented cutting down of 1104 kg of trees as well helping elderly with fuel.
• Paper Making –18  mesh frames made

Measuring the impact

Several articles on projects, share with Island Community. In December went to Roots @Shoots Awards in London, displayed project at event.

The overall goal for this project was to cut down on the amount of paper used within school – and where we couldn’t prevent its use, we recycled it to let it serve another purpose. Over 200 students have been involved in hands on projects making recycling boxes, paper, seed pots and briquettes. Many elderly people in community have been given paper briquettes as substitute for firewood/coal. Whole school is involved in paper recycling.

Using the Pod’s resources

We have completed the following Pod activities:

• Better off by Bike,
• Bug Hotel,
• Flushed with Success,
• Goodbye Standby,
• Lose your bottle,
• Recharge your batteries,
• Switch on to Switching Off, and
• Will Wind Work.

Educational resources used

• Climate Week Challenge,
• Volvo Adventure,
• Roots@Shoots Mission 

Lessons learned

Pupils enjoyed project. A good hands-on project which can involve lots of students.

Next steps

Looking at lunchtime waste.