By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Nossal High students have lifted a statewide schools award from the scrapheap, so to speak.
A student group Nossal Environmental Sustainability Team (NEST) led by Jessica Ball drove a state-leading waste recycling program from scratch in just 18 months.
On 16 October, they took out the School of the Year in the ResourceSmart Schools awards – topping a competitive field of 1000 schools.
Part of their program included a recycling wall for traditionally non-recycled items – like school staples such as pens, pencils, markers and batteries.
It also collected mobile phones, toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, coffee capsules and crushable plastics for recycling company TerraCycles.
In the meantime, the team created biodiversity tanks for native lizards, snakes and a frog, and planted hundreds of native trees.
In the past two years, the team earned stars for three ResourceSmart modules – core sustainability, waste and biodiversity.
Ms Ball, who was a finalist in the Teacher of the Year category, said students were enthusiastic and full of ideas.
“Once you’ve got them on board, you can do anything.”
