Local plan to keep waste out of schools

A GEELONG entrepreneur will pitch her idea to allow schools across Australia to run waste-free events to reduce their environmental footprint.

Jess Hobbs will be among the local hopefuls who will pitch their green business ideas to an expert panel next month in a bid to gain international exposure for their sustainable initiatives.

Ms Hobbs’ concept hatched from humble origins as a parent of students at Freshwater Creek Steiner School and a participant in the school’s annual fair.

The school draws heavily on nature-based education, and implements a range of sustainable practices from land care, organic food growth and environmental stewardship.

But despite its commitment, the school had a blindspot when it came to the yearly event that would result in bins full of waste going to landfill.

“We’d get to the end of the event and go ‘How is this possible?’,” Ms Hobbs said.

“Our beautiful school that’s out in the bush is doing all these great things throughout the year. How can it be that we put on an event that is showcasing the school, inviting the community in, and we end up with all this rubbish?

“I stepped up and said I’m going take on the waste management and when we get to the end of that fare we won’t all these wheelie bins full of rubbish.”

Ms Hobbs’ strategy involved simple measures such as clear labelling of bins to avoid contamination of waste streams, encouraging attendees to bring their keep cups, and working with stallholders to ensure food containers and utensils were reusable.

“We went from having six 240-litre bins that had all gone to landfill, and we reduced it to one quarter of a bin, which is 60 kilogrammes of landfill, which was just amazing,” she said.

“After that I thought that I want to help other schools do this.

“There’s certainly an awareness in schools and there’s amazing programs like waste audits and learning about their energy.

“But when they put on the event, it seems to get overlooked.”

Waste Free Events idea will be part of The Climate Launchpad “Pitch Finals” coming to Geelong as part of a cleantech convention next month.

Ms Hobbs and other contenders have been partnered with successful green business owners in recent weeks to refine their pitches and business models.

Successful entrants at the Geelong event will progress to the Asia-Pacific Finals.

NEXUS cleantech and circular economy showcase will be at the City of Greater Geelong’s Wurriki Nyal headquarters on August 11.