Mostafa Jetten: Hello, my name is Mostafa and I’m 15 years old. I have one brother and he’s called Adam, he’s 12 years old. I’m on secondary school now, the school is called Schoonhovens College. I like freerunning, at freerunning you get to do flips and jump over things, I also like hanging out with friends. I live in Bergambacht, a village 6 kilometres away from Schoonhoven, the city where my school is in. My ambition is to make programming my job, because I like to do it.
Elise Otto: My name is Elise Otto, and I’m 14 years old. My school is called Schoonhovens College. I'm in the 3rd year of VWO. My hobby is horseriding. I have 3 horses, they’re called Megan, Chananja and Bina. My ambition is to join the Olympics in horseriding once, or I would want to be a vet.
Loïs van den Berg: My name is Loïs van den Berg and I’m 14 years old. I live with my older sister Nina and my parents. I live and go to school in Schoonhoven. My school is called Schoonhovens College. My hobbies are playing hockey (3 times a week), drawing and playing piano. I have 3 pugs called Lola, Kristalle and Joris. I don’t have any ambitions yet, but I’d like to get a good job that has something to do with advertisement, design or art.
Jort Kuif: Hello, my name is Jort and I’m 14 years old. My hobbies are: playing soccer, playing tennis, playing the drums and hang out together with my friends. My ambitions for the future are: being happy together with my family and having a good job which I can make a lot of money with.
Main research question: How can waste management be realized most effectively at school?
Welcome to our page about waste management at school! Our school is called ‘Schoonhovens College’, it is an average sized school (see picture) . We have around 900 students at our school. Everyday a lot of rubbish is produced, mostly by the students. Everyone has a snack during the break and ends up with the packaging. All this trash needs to go somewhere, so how do we handle the trash in our school? In this article we’ll be talking about the ways of our school, including some interviews with some students. We think it is important for the students to take care of their trash in school, so they will use their taught ways outside school as well.
We were wondering why so much rubbish is left when the breaks are over. We think the main reason for this, is that a lot of people are a bit lazy during this period of their life called puberty and they’ll throw their trash on the ground instead of the trash can.‘’I know the cantine and floors will be cleaned and there are no consequences if you leave the trash’’ we got as an answer of a student (3rd grade), sometimes a teacher will notice, but that doesn’t happen in the aula (a place where most of the students eat their food) because it is such a huge place, but when you throw something on the ground and the janitor sees it, you have to pick it up and throw it into a trash can, but if you did it multiple times, you have to clean up the whole aula. Most of the students that refuse to throw things in the trash cans are in the 2nd and 3rd grade of this school. This is probably, because in the 1st grade the students are a little bit unfamiliar with what they have to do, so they will probably do what is being asked and that is to throw your trash in the trash cans. After the 3rd year, the students will act more adult like and they will throw their trash more often in the trash cans. We asked some people (3rd grade) if they always clean/throw away their trash when the break is over, here are our results.
You can see girls are a little more neat than boys, were talking about students with the average age of 14 years old, but there isn’t a huge difference. The result of these charts shows us that on average 30% of a class doesn’t throw away their garbage, this means that if you multiply that number by the total classes in this school, a big amount of garbage is left on the floor.
The most rubbish that you find in this school is plastic packaging of biscuits and little bags, because people put their bread in the little bags so that it won’t crumble in their backpacks. There is also a lot of bread and other food that is being thrown away by the students, because they are not hungry or they are to lazy to throw their leftovers into the trash can. You can find a lot of crumbs on the ground. They come from the saucijzen breads and other warm breads students buy at the Plus or the bakery, they can make a real mess and not everyone is willing to clean them themselves.
There are trash cans placed all over the school, so when the breaks are over a majority of the students throw away their trash in the bin. When the halls are empty and everyone has entered their classrooms you can notice a lot of rubbish is still left (like mentioned above). That’s why every break groups of 5-10 people need to clean the cantine. Every year each class gets to hear when they need to clean the cantine. Your class gets divided in groups and you’ll have to clean the cantine for 2 days. The tables are cleaned and the left over rubbish is thrown away. After school time there are hired persons who clean the hallways. That’s how we keep our school clean. There are even bins for plastic, they are relatively new so students are still getting used to it. You can also trash cans in the classrooms, and a separate basket for paper.
We use chromebooks, because of this we use less paper and we get to know more about technology, this saves the school a lot of money and it also helps the ecosystem by not using up to much paper. Our school has been using chromebooks for 3 years now, not everyone has a chromebook the group before us does but the group after that one doesn’t. With some subjects we use only our chromebooks and nothing else, while for other we combine them and switch often, sometimes we do exercises on our chromebook and sometimes we do exercises on
The school regulations for chewing gum depends on the school teacher that you have, because some teachers punish you really bad for chewing gum in their lessons, while some other teachers do not have a problem when you chew chewing gum in their lessons
We’re still thinking of ways to reduce the amount of rubbish produced here in school, Of Course we’re already using chromebooks, (which is helping us reduce a lot of waste) but not enough. We’re saying this from an experienced perspective. Teachers still tend to let us work on paper what makes the purpose of the chromebooks a little useless. We could also give courses about the consequences if everyone leaves their trash, this may stimulate the students to clean their trash.
Comparison:
After doing some research, we found out about the ways of how the Netherlands and India take care of their trash, in a surprisingly similar way. The younger students in the Netherlands tend to produce more rubbish, this happens in India as well. The usual waste like plastic water bottles, packaging and plastic bags are being produced by the students. We also found out about the fact that both schools have trash cans in the classrooms, (we don’t know for sure if they have bins for paper). Same story about the maids who take care of the rubbish in the schools when school is finished. There are also both students who help cleaning the canteens, but some Indian students help cleaning willingly and the students in the Netherlands are permitted to. The causes of the produced rubbish are a little different though, In India most of the students eat in the canteen, but there isn’t always place for everyone so they sit and eat on the canteen's ground. When they leave, they just leave the trash on the ground. In the Netherlands some students think it is cool to not throw away your trash, but some students are just too lazy.
Our main research question for this project was: How can waste management be realized most effectively at school?
In this project we found out that there are several ways, so that we can make the schools more neat and less dirty, for example: Bring in more plastic and paper only trash cans, this will be way better for the environment. Maybe punish the children more, that don’t throw their trash in the trash cans. And if we want the people to know the consequences of what happens when they don’t throw away their trash, in and out school. They should be getting lessons about the consequences. So our recommendation for the school is the following: Introduce more plastic and paper only bins. Punish the children that don’t throw their trash in the trash cans. And of course the canteen service that every student needs to do, is a very good way of managing our waste (if needed).
Interview questions students: What do you think of the way our school takes care of the trash produced by the students? Nina: It’s pretty good, they’ve just arranged new bins for plastic which I think is a good idea. There are also bowls on the tables in the canteen, which is also a good idea because mostly students are too lazy to walk over to the bin, this is a good solution for these students.
Lisa: It’s oke, but the fact that there is only one plastic bin is not very stimulating. Besides the plastic bins, there are enough normal ones. I’d say the situation could be better.
Eva: It’s good, the janitors are always paying attention if everyone is throwing away their trash and there are also bins for plastic now.
Julia: It’s good that the plastic is separated from the regular rubbish. Also it is good that the paper is separated. There are a lot of bins, which makes it easy to throw away the rubbish. Bo: We have trash cans at school, but there is a lot of trash on the floor and at the lockers.
Niels: It is pretty good, there are more than enough bins in the school. Bram: It is good, but it could be better.
Joost: I think it is pretty good, but it could definitely improve, because at the end of the breaks there is always still a lot of trash on the floor.
Twan: I think it is pretty good, but a lot of children still throw their trash on the floor when it is been told them not to do that. Pum : It’s good, because there are trash cans everywhere.
What do you think our school could do differently to stimulate more students to take care of their trash?
Nina: Maybe bins for paper, and I think it would be a good idea to give students courses about what will happen if you don’t separate your trash. This may have a stimulating effect on the students.
Lisa: Arrange more plastic bins instead of just only one.
Eva: Maybe add bins for paper as well. Julia: Maybe bins that look better, because most of the times the bins look dirty. It might be a good idea to place bins with two holes, one for plastic and one for regular rubbish. It would make separating the rubbish even more easy, because now there are different bins for that.
Bo: I think they already do a good job. Niels: paper bins would make it even better. Bram: Maybe more bins so people would have to search less for a bin. Joost: Maybe more bins or punish the people more often that don't throw their stuff in the trash cans.
Twan: Maybe introduce like paper bins, because a lot of the trash is paper and it is best if we can separate all the trash from each other
Pum : They could arrange more plastic bins, because now there is just one.
How do you usually take care of your trash?
Nina: I mostly throw away my trash, and separate the plastic as well of course.
Lisa: I always throw away my trash, the bins are really close to the place I always have my lunch, so it’s no problem to just walk over there and throw away my trash.
Eva: I usually throw away my trash and separate it as well. Julia: I throw my own rubbish into the bins. Bo: I throw my trash away.
Niels: I separate my trash when I throw it away.
Bram: Separate and then throw it in the bin.
Joost: I think I could throw away my trash more often, because I don't always throw my stuff away. Twan: I think I do pretty well on putting my trash into the trash can. Pum : I always throw my trash in the bins.
Have you changed over the years when it comes to taking care of your trash?
Nina: Yes because of the new trash cans ofcourse, and just like at home I separate the plastic.
Lisa: Yes maybe a little, I used to leave my trash more often in first grade, now I’m more aware of my trash use.
Eva: Yes, since I’ve been more busy with separating at home, I’m doing it at school as well. Julia: Now that the possibility is there to separate the rubbish, I do that.
Bo:Yes,first I didn’t really care when I threw my trash on the ground, but lately I throw my trash in the bin because I think nature is important and it doesn’t take much energy to throw away my trash.
Niels; Yes, I actually throw more trash in the bin than before.
Bram: First I didn't mind not putting it in the bin, now I do it every time.
Joost: I don’t think so, because in the last years I have more often than not thrown my trash away. Twan: I don't think I have changed. I still throw my stuff into the trash cans just like all the other years.
Pum : I didn’t really change, I always threw away my trash.
Pictures: Paper bin and normal bin inside the classroom:
Picture of bins before break:
Pictures of bins after the break day 1:
Pictures of bins after the break day 2:
Students cleaning the cantine after the break; you can see that there is still some trash on the ground:
Interview questions janitor:
How important is cleaning the school? Really important. It helps with the image of the school, because of this the school won’t go bankrupt. We wouldn’t have as much pupils if the school stank really bad and if there was rubbish everywhere. It is also nicer for the pupils on the school.
What can the school do to make this less? We as a school can stimulate the pupils to throw more rubbish in the trash cans. We do that by putting down way more bins than needed, so the pupils don’t have to walk as far to throw their rubbish away. We also try to inform the pupils about what rubbish does to the world so they put more rubbish into the trash cans.
How long can it take to clean the rubbish after breaks? That really depends, sometimes when a big class is on excursion, we would only have 10 seconds work, but sometimes we have to work for 25 minutes with 10 people to get the school clean, you really get shocked when that happens.
How many bins get cleaned everyday? Every bin in the school gets emptied everyday, even if it is almost empty, they still get emptied, every day of school in the morning you won't see any rubbish in the trash cans.
Does the separating of plastic in the breaks work? Yes, it makes it easier for us, the school, to separate the rubbish and to clean it, because of this we can separate plastic, paper and other materials very easy and we can together help us to a better world!