Waste education programs
Your school can explore ways to reduce waste with our education programs and learning materials.
Why reduce waste in your school?
There is a lot that schools can do to reduce waste.
To engage and support teachers and education professionals, Council has developed A Schools Guide to Reducing Waste and various waste management programs for schools to create a positive environmental culture. We invite all teachers and education professionals to register their classes according to the age of the students in one of the following programs.
A school's guide to reducing waste
Understanding what type of waste your school creates is the first step to reducing it.
This guide is part of a three-step approach to help educators, students, and cleaning and administrative staff promote sustainability at school using a waste action plan.
- Reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
- Save money on waste disposal costs.
- Help conserve energy, water and non-renewable resources.
The guide steps you through the waste audit process and how to take steps to reduce waste at school.
You can borrow a waste audit kit to make it easy to complete a school solid waste audit. Register to borrow a free kit.
Enter the results from your audit into the online school waste mangement tool. Follow the 5-step process to develop, implement and review your school waste management plan.
The Waste Smart Kindy professional development course has 4 units. Educators can complete the course at their own pace.
Educators can complete all units of the course at once, or complete units one at a time. We recommend starting with unit 1.
Unit 1: Setting up a Waste Smart Kindy
Learn how to manage the waste at your centre more sustainably.
Unit 2: Recycling
Find out what can be recycled and how to encourage recycling within your centre.
Unit 3: Compost and worm farming
Set up and maintain a compost bin or worm farm with practical and easy tips from the experts.
Unit 4: Munch and Crunch
Discover how to reduce food waste at your centre.
The toolkit contains lesson plans and ideas for encouraging good waste management and recycling, as well as digital and print materials (certificate, bin stickers, a guide, fact sheets and digital assets).
Early learning centres or services where 75% of staff have completed the online professional development course within the past 3 years should consider applying to become a Waste Smart Kindy.
To apply, complete the online application form and provide evidence that the requirements listed in the terms and conditions have been met.
Read the terms and conditions
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Ashgrove West Kindy, Ashgrove
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Bowen Hills
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Cannon Hill
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Jindalee
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, McDowall
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Paddington
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Parkinson
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Runcorn Heights
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Avenues Early Learning Centre, Sunnybank Hills
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Avenues Montessori Children's House, Bowen Hills
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Balmoral House Private Preschool
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C&K QUT Kelvin Grove Community Childcare Centre, Kelvin Grove
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C&K St Catherine's Community Kindergarten, Wishart
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Canossa Kindergarten, Coorparoo
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Centenary Christian Kindergarten, Middle Park
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Children @ Bay Terrace, Wynnum
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Eight Mile Plains Community Children's Centre, Eight Mile Plains
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Gan Gani Community Kindergarten, Fig Tree Pocket
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Guardian Childcare & Education, Coopers Plains
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Hillsong Child Care Centre, Mt Gravatt
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Kurilpa Community Child Care Centre, West End
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Lead Childcare, Tingalpa
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Little + Co Early Learning, Morningside
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Little Locals Early Learning, Auchenflower
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Marchant Park Kindergarten, Geebung
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Mater Early Learning Centre, South Brisbane
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Montessori Children's House, Auchenflower
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Pallara Childcare, Pallara
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Perfect Beginnings Early Learning Centre, Eight Mile Plains
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Prior Street Childcare and Development, Tarragindi
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Sparrow Early Learning, Stones Corner
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St John's Anglican College Little Saints Kindergarten, Forest Lake
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Staverton Kindergarten, Chelmer
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Tarragindi War Memorial Kindergarten
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The Learning Sanctuary, Morningside
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Tumble Tots, Stafford Heights (closed in 2024)
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West End Scott Street Community Kindergarten
Towards Zero Waste Education Centre
The Towards Zero Waste Education Centre is a Council initiative located at the Brisbane landfill site at Rochedale. The centre welcomes visitors wishing to learn about waste minimisation practices and landfill operations.
Things to know
- The centre is open to local schools and organisations on Tuesday and Thursday by appointment only. There is no cost for visits to the centre.
- Schools can book for a maximum of 70 people with 2 groups of 35 people including students, teachers, and parent volunteers.
- Your school will need to organise a bus and ensure it is available for the duration of the excursion. Council does not provide a bus. No private cars are allowed.
- Visitors can enjoy a 30-minute waste minimisation and landfill operations presentation, followed by a 30-minute bus tour.
- The minimum number of people for a booking is 10. The centre can accommodate a maximum of 35 people at a time.
- Children under 8 years of age are not permitted at the Brisbane landfill site.
Book a visit
Phone Council on 07 3403 8888 or send an email.
Helpful links
Frequently asked questions
To make your school more sustainable, start by conducting a waste audit to measure your school's waste management processes and identify areas where you can improve and reduce costs. There are many ways to carry out a sustainability project depending on the needs of the school. Remember that the best green project is one led by an enthusiastic and committed school community.
Register to borrow a waste audit kit provided by the Council free of charge.
Council’s waste audit kit includes a copy of A School's Guide to Reducing Waste, large and small tarps for sorting waste, recycling buckets, a set of tongs and gloves as well as cleaning and safety equipment. Loan kits are available for one week (7 days).
After completing the questions in A School’s Guide to Reducing Waste, you can enter your information and results from the audit and start your school’s waste management plan via an easy five-step process. See details of the steps via the School Waste Assessment tool.
Don’t wait for World Environment Day to implement sustainable activities in your school. Once students are engaged in active learning about the environment, it is time to engage in hands-on activities related to their daily lives.
Ask them to choose an environmental issue that is close to their hearts and let them do their own research. This could be studying the lifecycle of plastic, encouraging the collection of recyclable items at school, determining how to encourage the reuse of paper or reducing food waste at school by talking with your canteen/tuckshop staff members.
You can also take part in a school clean-up day or sign up to participate in national events such as Clean Up Australia Day.
Arrange a visit to the Brisbane landfill site to learn about the waste hierarchy and work towards zero waste.
One of the easiest ways to reuse paper is to encourage students to always use both sides of a sheet of paper before recycling it. Teachers and students can reinforce recycling habits by placing a "reuse box" next to printers. Use recycling signs to clearly label these containers and their purposes.
Other ideas for reusing paper at school:
- use and buy recycled paper
- place the remaining sheets with a blank side in the reuse box
- reuse paper for notes and memos
- cut off unused portions of paper to use as bookmarks.
Redirect food scraps generated at your school into compost and not into the rubbish bin. Food scraps, garden waste, and shredded paper and cardboard can all be composted. Purchase a comost bin (use our What goes in my compost bin poster to label it) and find somewhere outside that is easy to access but not too close to the play area. Fill your compost bin with food scraps – it's important to mix them with high-carbon materials like leaves or newspapers. Regularly sprinkle the compost with water to help keep it moist. Aeration can be done by regularly turning a compost tumbler or mixing the material in the compost pile or bin with a garden fork.
If you'd like to learn more, attend one of our free compost and worm farm workshops.
Conduct a waste audit, to check which sustainability practices are most relevant to your school.
You can then:
- start a vegetable garden with a compost system
- order large recycling bins
- install dedicated recycling stations with recycling labels
- connect with others beyond the school – participate in youth networks and programs for school.