
Sustainability Week
📆 24 - 28 April 2023

This week at Hathershaw we are promoting our second sustainability week. Last year we started our sustainability journey and kickstarted the campaign to be a greener school with some awareness raising activities around the issue of climate change. This year we have continued to raise awareness, whilst bringing back some of last year’s popular events and also focusing on the theme of ‘Hope’. We are hopeful at Hathershaw about the future of our planet and the future of our young people and we know that if we all work together to be more sustainable this will lead to a happier future for everyone.
The ‘Which Bin?’ competition at break times has been a real hit!
Studying poetry about endangered coral reefs in English lessons.
The Waste Mountain showed just how many items we can recycle rather than putting them into general waste.
Maria Mazur won last year’s sustainability poster competition and these are now proudly displayed around the building.
Below is the programme of events we have been following for the Sustainability Week this year:
So, what is new since last year?
The Eco Committee
We have now set up a student Eco Committee who meet once a half term to discuss all things sustainability. The students interviewed for their positions on the committee and are really proud to be doing something positive for the planet. They discuss ways we can raise awareness around sustainability issues within school such as improving recycling and they wrote and designed the below 2040 Future Postcard to show what they would like the future Hathershaw to be like. This postcard has featured within the sustainability week assemblies to get other students thinking about the opportunities we have to become more eco-friendly and make more sustainable choices.
Sustainability Champions
The staff Sustainability Working Party also meets once a half term. This year we have been focusing on providing some sustainability CPD for staff on how to become a net-zero school and improving climate education within the secondary curriculum. We are also looking for ways to make recycling around the building easier for all staff and students and ways to reduce single use plastic.
Recycling and reuse opportunities in the college
We now have various recycling streams at Hathershaw meaning that we can recycle so much more of our waste and we are always looking for more opportunities to cut down on waste and recycle everything we can. Every classroom has a recycling bag which students and staff can put waste paper, card, plastic bottles, drinks cans and tin cans into.
We also have recycling bins around the school building which occupants of the school can put recyclable items into on corridors. In the school reception area, we have two tube bins which are used to collect old pens and glue sticks and confectionary and crisp packets. The waste pens and glue sticks are taken to Rymans stationers for recycling and the confectionary and crisp packets are taken to a Terracycle hub for recycling.
In the design technology faculty, the students make models using the old cardboard which our paper is delivered in and the art faculty are always asking staff to bring in waste materials which can be reused as part of their KS3 and KS4 art projects in lessons. The English faculty have donated lots of old texts that they no longer use in English lessons to the library and the library has hosted free book fairs to give away old books to students who have worked hard and have been given a free book token by their teachers.
At Christmas some of the teachers brought in their pre-loved items and these were taken away by colleagues to be re-gifted to other families and friends.
The recycling bin in the small canteen allows Y7 students to recycle at lunchtime.
Paul Lomas from the site team emptying our pen and glue stick tube bin to be recycled at Rymans.
Teaching staff browsing some of the pre-loved prezzies at a recent staff eco-anxiety session.
What more can be done at home?
Slow fashion – How to reduce your carbon emissions from clothing
Did you know that the fashion industry is responsible for approximately 10% of the world’s carbon emissions? The fashion industry has developed faster and more efficient production cycles, driving down production costs. The rapidly falling prices have resulted in consumers treating garments as disposables. Today the average consumer buys 60% more clothing than 15 years ago.
Globally, we create 92 million tons of textile waste each year, which is equivalent to 12 kilograms per person. Less than 25% of clothes are re-used second hand and less than 1% of material is recycled. The vast majority of end-of-life clothes end up in landfills or incineration plants. The lack of recycling and under-use of clothes results in substantial carbon emissions.
So what can I do as a consumer, to reduce my carbon footprint from clothing?
1. Use, cherish and repair the clothes you already own
The average garment is used only ten times before it’s thrown away, which drives the demand for new clothes. As almost 80% of the carbon footprint is generated in the manufacturing of new clothing, the most effective carbon reduction you can achieve is to use existing clothes longer, instead of buying new ones.
Caring for and repairing the clothes you own is therefore attractive both from an economic and an environmental perspective.
2. Adopt circular shopping habits
When you are in need of a new item of clothing, think about whether you really have to buy a newly produced item. Could the garment be sourced second hand instead? Apparel is a popular category on sites like eBay, ThreadUp, Swap.com, Sellpy and Facebook Marketplace. Another way to take climate action is to organise a Clothes swap.
Also consider whether you really need to own the garment. Could you borrow from a friend or family member or rent the garment instead?
3. Choose climate friendly materials
If you really need to buy a new garment, then remember that the choice of material has a large climate impact. Cotton and Polyester are the most common materials in the fashion industry. Cotton is unfortunately extremely resource-intensive to grow and process. Polyester is not much better, as it’s made from petroleum and causes major problems in the form of microplastics.
A more climate friendly alternative is Bamboo, which is the world's fastest growing plant. A bamboo plantation annually produces ten times more textile per hectare than cotton does. Bamboo is not harvested at the root but pruned, which helps keep the soil stable and sequesters carbon dioxide.
There are also other climate friendly materials on the rise, such as locally grown hemp and lyocell. For performance clothes, traditionally made using virgin polyester and nylon, there are now garments made from recycled ocean plastics available.
Finally, it’s also important to choose quality over quantity. It’s not how much money you spend, but the amount of clothes you buy and how quickly they wear out that creates the carbon footprint.
Use your screen time to be part of the climate movement
After taking steps to reduce our own personal emissions, the next step is to help influence climate action in society - and to do that we need to work together.
Switch to Ecosia for your internet search engine. The simplest way to plant trees and be climate active every day!
Show your support for the planet on social media by sharing recycling tips, reuse ideas, sustainable gift options, charity work and sustainable news stories. You could even show your stripes to raise awareness #ShowYourStripes
Choose Eco-Friendly Gifts
As well as using Ecosia to search the internet and plant trees in the process you can shop with Ecosia’s Tree Store to give the gift of trees!
Starting at £10 to plant 5 trees for climate action the world is potentially your rainforest as you and your friends can gift each other limitless numbers of trees (at a cost!). 5 trees planted for wildlife also starts at £10 and you can buy the Impact Bundle, planting 25 endangered trees in biodiversity hotspots. An Impact Bundle contribution costs £40 and plants trees that create much needed habitat for wildlife, trees that restore natural water cycles and trees that provide income sources and stability for women. Your trees will absorb tons of CO2 and increase soil fertility, fighting the effects of climate change. What an incredible gift for a friend, family member or even yourself! More importantly what an incredible gift for the planet.
If you want your gift to be something more physical, something you can actually wrap, why not try a gift from the WWF online shop. There are gifts appropriate for adults and children, ranging from cuddly animal toys to art and even to animal adoption packs. This Charlie Mackesy tote bag is also now available for £12.
Purge the Plastic
Plastic is an affordable and durable material which makes it the perfect product for many of day to day items and activities, at work, at home and everywhere else…
Unfortunately, plastic waste is an ever growing problem for the earth’s environment so we need to all do everything we can to cut back on the amount of plastic we use and more importantly, throw away.
Here’s 8 tips to help you purge your plastic use, some obvious, but we’re still a way from this being our norm:
1. Always carry a coffee cup to avoid take-away cups
2. Avoid plastic packaging on food where you can - buy loose fruit and veg
3. Look for alternative products packed in paper, glass, aluminium etc.
4. Swap from disposable items to refills e.g. razors
5. Avoid unrecyclable plastics such as films, pouches or multi-layered materials, anything with ‘do not recycle’ on the back of pack
6. Remember to separate your plastics properly before putting in the recycle bin
7. Get to know the recycling and packaging symbols so you understand what can be recycled and what can’t. Remember, many supermarkets will now collect your soft plastic for recycling, but always check for the ‘can be recycled’ symbol. Here are some of the packaging symbols explained:
8. Ensure you are wrapping gifts with recyclable wrapping paper and if you are crafty why not try some alternative materials to wrap your presents:
Reduce Food Waste
70% of all food waste in the UK comes from our homes and 4.5 tonnes of food that could have been eaten is thrown away each year by UK households – the equivalent of 8 meals a week. 25% of food wasted in homes is due to cooking, preparing or serving too much – this costs UK families £3.5 billion each year!
It is important to recycle the food we can’t eat, but it is even more important to make the most of the food we buy and save it from the bin if we can. According to WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme), the average UK family could save over £700 a year simply by taking action to waste less food.
10 ways to reduce food waste:
1) Organise your food cupboards so you don’t forget about things hidden at the back which may go past their use buy date
2) Plan ahead/write a shopping list so you don’t buy more than you need
3) Only buy what you need – don’t be tempted by extra treats or meals that then won’t get eaten
4) Measure portion sizes – don’t cook too many ingredients which could be used on another meal later in the week
5) Keep an eye on the ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ dates and make sure you know the difference – many foods are fine to still be eaten even if the ‘use by’ date has passed so don’t just chuck it
6) Freeze foods you can’t use in time so nothing will be wasted
7) Store bread in the freezer if you can as it lasts much longer
8) Turn left overs into tasty meals – ‘bubble and squeak’ anyone?
9) Donate packaged foods you don’t want – we often collect for Oldham foodbank at Hathershaw and loads of supermarkets have a donation bin for packaged foods
10) Get composting and re-use your food waste to grow some of your own vegetables!
Positive news stories
Drizzle-forests
We're no strangers to rain here in the UK, but rainFORESTS... not something you expect to pass through on your dog walk. Believe it or not, England's Atlantic coast (aka the West Country) is home to the final few fragments of the UK's temperate rainforests – and the Wildlife Trusts have embarked on a 100-year-mission to help expand these major carbon sinks back to their former glory. Read more here.
The Great Bubble Barrier
A new method for stopping plastic escaping into oceans is set to be rolled out across Europe. The Great Bubble Barrier is a super simple technology – perforated tubes running along riverbeds, creating a curtain of bubbles that stops plastic particles. During it's trial in Amsterdam, 8000 pieces of plastic per month were caught en route to the North Sea. Find out more here.