Bring your rubbish home

Sunny Dayz

My son's primary school decided this term that the pupils should bring their rubbish from their lunch boxes home with them. School confirmed in their monthly newsletter that this is to keep waste costs down.

So my son comes home every day with butter, yoghurt, crumbs, etc, smeared all over the inside of his lunch box, which sometimes can smells a bit as I don't around to it til near 7 in the evening by the time I collect him from childminder and get dinner.

Is it just me or does this sound pure cheeky??

stop animal cruelty

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

My son's primary school decided this term that the pupils should bring their rubbish from their lunch boxes home with them. School confirmed in their monthly newsletter that this is to keep waste costs down.

So my son comes home every day with butter, yoghurt, crumbs, etc, smeared all over the inside of his lunch box, which sometimes can smells a bit as I don't around to it til near 7 in the evening by the time I collect him from childminder and get dinner.

Is it just me or does this sound pure cheeky??

sounds a bit ott alrite, only positive l can think is that hopefully it might teach the kids not to litter

ShamoBuc

I think every school should be doing this. Who do you think should pay for the recycling/ rubbish costs? A few hundred kids....2 breaks....5 days a week.... the cost would be ridiculous. Schools just don't have the money.
We have been doing the same in our school for at least 6 or 7 years and it works.
If you bring it in, you bring it home.

Mr.Wemmick

Teaching children how to recycle using school bins as part of their daily school lives would be a great idea. As would teaching children how to lessen waste etc. But stuffing waste back into lunch boxes and school bags is unhygienic, to say the least. I don't agree with it at all, and if food waste in the bag causing dirt/germs to accumulate, is really not on. Lunch boxes are a magnet for bacteria to accumulate.. I would think the school is being rather irresponsible, if not downright lazy.

Like I have written: use the exercise to teach children how to recycle, lessen waste and keep food containers clean/hygienic is one thing, but what they are doing is not on. I dread to think come Summer/warm weather or when the school heating is on full blast what the smells are going to be like.

A child's school bag or lunch box is not a dustbin, simples.

lily09

Most children in primary schools are taught about recycling. Nearly 90% of schools are involved in the green flag scheme. One of the key components is teaching children about using the correct bins. As part of the first green flag "Litter and Waste" the school must commit to bring down the weight of their rubbish. So is it all rubbish the children must bring home or just non-recyclables. If it is just non-recyclables check that yoghurt cartons are recyclable, therefore can be washed out and recycled in school. Things like frubes etc are a nightmare as cant be recycled and leak everywhere.
In our school we have compost bin and recycling bin(and small rubbish bin) and even in fourth class, I have to check lunchboxes as some kids prefer to stuff things back in rather than put them in the correct bins.

thesimpsons

my kids primary used to insist on this. even when parents offered to supply recycling bags the school still insisted on it. resulted in god awful messes in school bags, youghurt containers spilling out of lunchboxes onto books, banana skins smelling to high heaven, etc. the resulting mess that came home made recycling and composting such a task that the whole lot got tipped into the ordianary black bin and had a negative impact on recycling. The school relented once the heating came on in school and the complaints of smells

Secondary schools don't seem to do this at all - food is composted, cartons etc recycled and there's never a complaint from school or pupils

aisher

My kids bring home their rubbish also - not too bad since they only bring in a sandwich/bar and a drink - as regards smells etc. include a small pastic bag which can hold the leftover food etc. With all the cutbacks schools are facing I think if they can cut back on waste charges then it has to be good.

Toto Wolfcastle

thesimpsons wrote: »

Secondary schools don't seem to do this at all - food is composted, cartons etc recycled and there's never a complaint from school or pupils

I worked in a secondary school that introduced it. The students weren't using the correct bins for their rubbish and no amount of education was working. The bins were checked several times a day and nothing changed so they removed the bins from the 1st year rooms and told them that they had to bring their rubbish home. Of course, they could use the bins in the canteen if they wanted to but a lot of them chose to bring the rubbish home rather than walk down to the canteen. The policy was introduced as the weather was starting to warm up and the 1st years rooms were located in a place where they got plenty of sun throughout the day. There were no smells. The new policy worked and the plan was to introduce it in other years the following year.

Lady_North1

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

My son's primary school decided this term that the pupils should bring their rubbish from their lunch boxes home with them. School confirmed in their monthly newsletter that this is to keep waste costs down.

So my son comes home every day with butter, yoghurt, crumbs, etc, smeared all over the inside of his lunch box, which sometimes can smells a bit as I don't around to it til near 7 in the evening by the time I collect him from childminder and get dinner.

Is it just me or does this sound pure cheeky??

Not OTT or cheeky at all. My kids school have been doing this for years. Imagine the waste costs for 500+ kids lunch wrappings over 5 days. I'm sure we all pay enough to the school without being asked to pay for waste collection. Our school used to put out 4/5 huge bigs every 2 weeks. Cost 30 euro each. Now it's one or two bins.
Only takes a few mins to wash the lunchbox. Can't see the problem at all.

juneg

introduced successfully to our school years ago. Just give child a small plastic bag for rubbish.This will keep the lunchbox clean. The other problem it avoids is children throwing the lunch items they dont like in the bin to avoid having their parent see that it hasnt been eaten.

I never give yogurt because by the time the child gets to eat them they have been out of the fridge for hours and are runny.

I freeze frubes instead and pop one in the lunchbox in the morning. They melt slowly and are nice and cool when eaten then.

Big Bag of Chips

Our kids always bring home their rubbish. If nothing else it helps me keep an eye on exactly what they are eating in school and I know none of their lunch is going in the bin!

Eddie Hobbs went to a school, in Ballyfermot I think, as part of his show that taught people how to better budget and sort out their finance.

Even he couldn't make the schools budget stretch to what the school actually had to pay out. The school were spending a couple of thousand over budget every year, and that was AFTER cutting out everything they could possibly cut out.

Parents constantly complain about donations and contributions. The Parents' Association and their never ending fundraisers are dreaded by every parent - including the Parents' Association!

But the money has to come from somewhere. The schools just don't have sufficient money themselves.

If parents were given the choice to bring home rubbish or pay a bin charge fee every year (on top of arts & crafts, photocopying, bookrentals, various donations and fundraisers during the year etc...), which would the majority go for?

E.T.

Totally normal in any schools I know too. Recycling is already taught in schools, but schools just can't afford to pay bin charges for all pupils. Most kids bring their lunch in washable lunchboxes which only take a second to clean (I've done it plenty of times when yogurts have leaked). I've never noticed (or had any complaints or comments from parents) about smells in the classroom, or in lunchboxes.

doctorwhogirl

Schools need to get their acts together on this but it is a gradual process. We've only achieved good waste management through our green flags. (We have five! )

We have three bins in each room and one in the bathrooms.
One for compost/wormery: fruit, pencil parings etc... No meat or bread.
One for recycling: paper, card, cartons etc... Children are taught how to rinse cartons etc... before putting them in the bin so they don't smell
One for non recyclables which is usually only half full by the end of the week.

The one in the bathroom is for the blue tissue the children use to dry their hands which is recycled too.

We have 270 odd pupils and once they're trained into it, they're super for recycling stuff! They even tell me off and each other if stuff is in the wrong bin!!!

Midnight Sundance

I don't see the big problem , as others have said there is a huge cost to running a school and waste is a very large cost!
How about you include in his lunch box a small paper / plastic lunch bag for your son to put his yogurt /banana peel/apple core etc. then they won't smear all over his lunch box. Simply a matter of popping into the bin and rinsing it out every evening.

summer breezer

this happens in most schools!!

January

Happens in my daughters school. Have no problem with it. Lets me know how much she has eaten through out the day too. A little lunchbox from Dealz goes in empty every day because the school provides lunches.

SandyRamp

I think it is actually a good idea, my daughter is a picky eater sometimes and it helps me to see exactly what she has or hasn't eaten during the day.

mat cauthon

Sunny Dayz wrote: »

My son's primary school decided this term that the pupils should bring their rubbish from their lunch boxes home with them. School confirmed in their monthly newsletter that this is to keep waste costs down.

So my son comes home every day with butter, yoghurt, crumbs, etc, smeared all over the inside of his lunch box, which sometimes can smells a bit as I don't around to it til near 7 in the evening by the time I collect him from childminder and get dinner.

Is it just me or does this sound pure cheeky??

Yes you are pure cheeky.
Who else should dispose of your rubbish? If not you?
Would you leave a stinky nappy on the beach, on the basis that it would stink out your car?

Seriously!:mad::mad::mad:

D4RK ONION

mat cauthon wrote: »

Yes you are pure cheeky.
Who else should dispose of your rubbish? If not you?
Would you leave a stinky nappy on the beach, on the basis that it would stink out your car?

Seriously!:mad::mad::mad:

Please read the charter. And remember to be civil to your fellow posters. Consider this your written warning.

Do not reply to this post.

mat cauthon

Oh, dear.
Okay, so it may be a bit much to expect schools, who exist on very low budgets, to pay for the disposal of childrens rubbish. A simple plan is to put the lunch box into a plastic bag, and that solves the food in the school bag problem.
Or, else, maybe we could allow the schools to collect money from parents to accomodate increased refuse collection costs? That might work.
On top of the books, uniforms etc that parents pay for, sure an extra tenner a term wouldn't amount to much.

Then all would be happy.