Mangakahia Area School has opened an all-weather recycling station which it hopes will earn it a green gold enviro award.
The building was the brainchild of the school's head boy, Darone Diamond, who came up with the idea as part of his NCEA level 3 "educating for sustainability" project.
The new subject
aims to make students think and act in ways that will safeguard the future of our planet.
Darone shared his design with his Year 13 classmates, who researched and then built it. The project was facilitated by educating for sustainability and enviroschools teacher Elyne Semenoff. Construction started last term and was supervised by building and technology teacher John Coram.
The station consists of a covered concrete area with large bins for separating glass, paper, metal and food scraps. During the first 10 minutes of lunchtime, rostered classes will walk around the school with the different bins collecting waste.
Whangarei District Council donated the bins and Northland Regional Council granted a $1500 towards the cost of building materials. Year 10 students helped make the facility blend in with the rest of the campus by planting beds of native plants.
Principal Anne Stead said it had been an enviro school for the past six years and had received a bronze medal in 2005 and a silver in 2007. She said the school was poised to become one of a few schools in New Zealand to be given a green gold enviro award - "the all weather station is a big part of that."
Whangarei District Councillor Sharon Morgan and Northland Regional Councillor Bill Rossiter officially opened the station by untying a piece of flax.
The building crew was Dylan Tohu, Keegan Walker, Ryan Hall, Erin Murphy and Shelly Nielsen.
