Waste management
Introduction: Yliene: Hi! I’m Yliene, I’m 14 years old and I’m in third year of bilingual education. I like to play soccer with my friends, on Saturdays we have matches and we play against boys with a girls team. I have 2 brothers, 3 sisters and a twin-brother. I’m in the same class as my twin-brother. I like spending time with them and my friends. I live in a detached house with my parents and twin, I have 2 dogs, a cat, a turtle and some fish. In my free time I spend time with my friends and family. Aniela: Hi, I’m Aniela and I’m 14 years old. I’m in third year of bilingual education. My hobbies are playing Rugby and playing the Piano. On most Saturdays I play matches against boys and girls. I have a brother he is 18 years old. I live with my parents and brother in a semidetached house. I have a dog and 2 cats. I like to have sleepovers with friends and watch scary movies. Sven: Hi, I'm Sven and I'm 14 years old. I'm in third year of bilingual education. Things I like to do in my spare time are playing football and mountainbiking. I live with my parents and sister from 12 in a detached house. I have 3 pets, a dog and 2 parrots. Division of tasks: Sven: doing the interviews. Yliene: doing the Rubbish produced at school. Aniela: doing School policy and the Website. |
What does the school look like?
The school has two locations the first location is a big building with lots of windows the building itself is white. When you walk in the school through the main entrance you will enter a large hallway with a lot of lockers on the walls and some space to hang your jacket. School has three floors and four wings the A-wing, the B wing, the C wing and the P.E classrooms. At the back of the school, there's the canteen in the breaks you can get food from the cafeteria of the vending machines you can choose if you want to sit on sofa's or by a table.
The second location is small but has a lot of windows as well the outside is white. I think the building looks boring. The school has no floors, about 15 classrooms and a small canteen you can get snacks out the vending machine, or you can sit by a table. This location is only for the pupils till year three. If you are in year four you are only ad the ''head'' building. All class below year 3 have to go two days in a week to the second location.
The school has two locations the first location is a big building with lots of windows the building itself is white. When you walk in the school through the main entrance you will enter a large hallway with a lot of lockers on the walls and some space to hang your jacket. School has three floors and four wings the A-wing, the B wing, the C wing and the P.E classrooms. At the back of the school, there's the canteen in the breaks you can get food from the cafeteria of the vending machines you can choose if you want to sit on sofa's or by a table.
The second location is small but has a lot of windows as well the outside is white. I think the building looks boring. The school has no floors, about 15 classrooms and a small canteen you can get snacks out the vending machine, or you can sit by a table. This location is only for the pupils till year three. If you are in year four you are only ad the ''head'' building. All class below year 3 have to go two days in a week to the second location.
School policy
School is starting to be better for nature the school uses paper cups instead of plastic cups. The school have also made a water tap where you can fill your bottle with fresh cold water. the school doesn't separate the garbage. We have to kinds of bins one for plastic bottle and you can only throw a plastic bottle in this bin, and a bin for all the other garbage like wrappers, chewing gum, fruit peels etc. I think the school could do even more with separating the garbage such as making a bin, especially for the plastics. I have spoken to the janitors and they said that they have already made some positive differences such as: every classroom has a sperate bin for paper that get emptied every week and in the kitchen the school tries to use no plastic for example they use porcelain cups and plates and reusable knives and forks instead of the plastic ones that you throw away after. It would better for the environment it doesn't take a lot of effort yourself to throw away your candy wrapper in a separate bin. There is a break there are small bins on the table and whenever the small bins are full the concierges empty them in the big bins next to some tables. If a student throws something on the ground concierges see it they ask polity to grab it from the ground and throwing it in the bin. After every break, the concierges are walking around and picking up garbage. Emptying the small bins on the tables so there clean for the next break. The ICT-technology nearly reduced the paper waste on school because a lot of assignments you get on paper and access them on your laptop. That's just there if you lose the paper. I think if the school wants to reduce the paper waste a lot. I tried to get a hold of the principal but no luck I had asked her the question 'what the school is trying to do with the paper waste', but she didn't respond.
School is starting to be better for nature the school uses paper cups instead of plastic cups. The school have also made a water tap where you can fill your bottle with fresh cold water. the school doesn't separate the garbage. We have to kinds of bins one for plastic bottle and you can only throw a plastic bottle in this bin, and a bin for all the other garbage like wrappers, chewing gum, fruit peels etc. I think the school could do even more with separating the garbage such as making a bin, especially for the plastics. I have spoken to the janitors and they said that they have already made some positive differences such as: every classroom has a sperate bin for paper that get emptied every week and in the kitchen the school tries to use no plastic for example they use porcelain cups and plates and reusable knives and forks instead of the plastic ones that you throw away after. It would better for the environment it doesn't take a lot of effort yourself to throw away your candy wrapper in a separate bin. There is a break there are small bins on the table and whenever the small bins are full the concierges empty them in the big bins next to some tables. If a student throws something on the ground concierges see it they ask polity to grab it from the ground and throwing it in the bin. After every break, the concierges are walking around and picking up garbage. Emptying the small bins on the tables so there clean for the next break. The ICT-technology nearly reduced the paper waste on school because a lot of assignments you get on paper and access them on your laptop. That's just there if you lose the paper. I think if the school wants to reduce the paper waste a lot. I tried to get a hold of the principal but no luck I had asked her the question 'what the school is trying to do with the paper waste', but she didn't respond.
The rubbish produced at school
- How many rubbish is produced at our school? We asked our janitors this and they said that per 2 days around 2000 liters of rubbish is thrown away. One of our questions also was, what did you do to reduce the rubbish produce? they answered this question by saying that they put small baskets on the tables were students can throw their waste in. they empty these into the garbage bins and at the end of the day they empty those.
- We think that older student are producing more waste than younger students for example, older students have more in between hours in a day so they will get more food from the grocery stores etc. younger students can only go to the grocery stores during the breaks and most don’t go because of the limited time we have. We also think that boys produce more waste and are more reckless with their waste and throwing it away. The kind of rubbish produced at our school is mostly plastic bags from chips or plastic bottles but also paper from tests are thrown away after some time. Nowadays we see a lot of masks being thrown away and not in the garbage bins but on the ground etc. Our rubbish we produce in the breaks is being thrown away in the bins, some people at our school throw it outside, the rubbish after being thrown away by us is collected by the people that work for the garbage company. We are responsible for cleaning our own stuff, but the janitors clean after us. Some students are not thinking about the environment and throw their rubbish on the ground, it is easy and fast of getting rid of your responsibility to clean after yourself.
- Methods to limit the amount of rubbish; More bins and maybe posters around school so that you become aware that you should not be throwing your waste products on the ground. A big problem with throwing your rubbish on ground and litter is that people are not aware of what it could do to the environment, so by making people aware of the problem I think it would limit the amount of rubbish around school.
The interviews
Interview with a janitor who is responsible for the waste management at our school
Sven: Hello sir can I ask you some questions about the waste management at our school?
Janitor: Yes of course what do you want to know.
Sven: Well how do you collect all the waste?
Janitor: Across the whole school we have bins and our team with janitors will walk through the school to see if no one throws anything on the ground and if we see someone do that we will let them grab it and throw it in the bin, but we can't see everything ofcourse so after every break we will clean everything.
Sven: Is there a way in which the school seperates waste?
Janitor: Yes there are we plastic bins for bottles that stand in the cantine and in the classrooms there are paper bins for when you want to throw away paper but most of the bins are for residual waste.
Sven: Where does the waste from our school go to?
Janitor: I dont exactly know that but we throw all the garbage bags in a big container that you might have seen next to the school and then a company that collects waste will come and get it.
Sven: Oke thank you for answering my question and have a nice day bye.
Interview with Ronald from Area Reiniging(waste/recycling company)
Sven: Hello sir can I ask you some questions about the waste management in your company?
Ronald: Yes of course.
Sven: In which ways do you collect the waste of the people?
Ronald: Every 2 weeks we will collect the plastic and the residual waste and once in a month we collect the green waste. Our nightmans wil collect it with our garbage trucks but you can also deposit it in a joint waste container or here in emmen we have a dump where you can deposit your garbage.
Sven: Ah oke but when you've collected the waste, where do you store it?
Ronald: Everything goes to the dump and gets seperated in a lot of different very big bins and from there it will get recycled.
Sven: How do you recycle the waste?
Ronald: Well not all of the waste can be recycled and we do not recycle everything, because like the Suez another recycling company they recycle all the plastic, but like the green waste we do recycle and we burn the waste in big ovens or send it to companies that can make new manure from it.
Sven: Where does the waste go after it is recycled?
Ronald: It will go to factories that can make for example from recycled paper, newspapers or books but I don't really know where everything will go to but maybe if you have a newspaper in your hand it can be made from the waste that came from our company.
Sven: Well that sounds pretty cool but thank you for answering my question, good luck with everything.
The questions I asked the students.
Question 1: Do you think our school is a clean place?
Question 2: Does the school take enough measures against waste on the floors?
Question 3: Does the school do enough to seperate the waste in school?
Yntze 14 years old
It isn't the best but overall quite clean.
There isn't much on the floor because of the janitors.
I don't really know if there is anything.
Mathijs 14 years old
At most places it's pretty clean.
Yes they do because it is always clean but I don't know in which ways
I don't know
Isabeau 14 years old
There are a lot of cleaners, so I think the schools hygiene is pretty decent.
Yes, everywhere there are janitors that clean the whole day.
No it doesn't matter if it is plastic, cardboard or fruit. It all goes in the same bin.
Emma 14 years old
Yes it's very clean
Our janitors are really great so yes.
We have paper bins in the classes so I think that is oke.
Pepien 12 years old
I think it's clean but it depends a bit on which side of the school you are.
In the cantines it is really great because of the janitors.
I don’t know about that but I think so.
Carmen 13 years old
It's very clean but the Meerdijk is cleaner then the Wendeling (our school has two locations the Meerdijk and the Wendeling)
Yes there's always a janitor that picks it up and most of the children do it already by themselves.
I only know that there are paper bins, but I think there's nothing to separate plastic
Patrick 14 years old
Our school Is a clean place but there's a lot of chewing gum on the ground and under tables.
There is almost no waste on the ground so I think yes.
The school doesn't really seperate waste except from paper.
Harmen 14 years old
I think our school is clean indeed.
After every break everything gets cleaned so that's good.
I don’t know if anything happens.
Damian 14 years old
The school is very clean I think.
There are enough janitors that clean the ground.
Yes they do because there are paper bins and I think I also saw plastic bins once for bottles
Diego 15 years old
Overal the school is pretty clean but some places aren't.
I always see people clean and also if I have detention there are a lot of cleaners.
I don’t really know about this.
How did you invite people to respond?
I send them a message, a mail, a call or I just visited them.
How many people have been invited?
10 students, 1 janitor and 4 recycling companies.
What is the response rate?
Everyone responded except from the recycling companies there did only 1 respond
Which group member(s) designed the questions and sent out the questionnaire?
Sven, he was the interviewer
Which platform have you used (mail, social media, survey monkey, others?)
Mail, google and snapchat
Who has processed the results?
Sven
Main research question: How can waste management be realized most effectively at school?
I think it already goes very well with the waste management at our school only the janitors or people responsible for the waste management can keep in mind that almost none of the waste gets seperated. Therefore it will be very difficult to recycle so the best solution for school is to request and oblige waste separation. Especially for plastic, because there are a lot of bottles and plastic bags that now get thrown in the residual waste.
Question 1: Do you think our school is a clean place?
Question 2: Does the school take enough measures against waste on the floors?
Question 3: Does the school do enough to seperate the waste in school?
Yntze 14 years old
It isn't the best but overall quite clean.
There isn't much on the floor because of the janitors.
I don't really know if there is anything.
Mathijs 14 years old
At most places it's pretty clean.
Yes they do because it is always clean but I don't know in which ways
I don't know
Isabeau 14 years old
There are a lot of cleaners, so I think the schools hygiene is pretty decent.
Yes, everywhere there are janitors that clean the whole day.
No it doesn't matter if it is plastic, cardboard or fruit. It all goes in the same bin.
Emma 14 years old
Yes it's very clean
Our janitors are really great so yes.
We have paper bins in the classes so I think that is oke.
Pepien 12 years old
I think it's clean but it depends a bit on which side of the school you are.
In the cantines it is really great because of the janitors.
I don’t know about that but I think so.
Carmen 13 years old
It's very clean but the Meerdijk is cleaner then the Wendeling (our school has two locations the Meerdijk and the Wendeling)
Yes there's always a janitor that picks it up and most of the children do it already by themselves.
I only know that there are paper bins, but I think there's nothing to separate plastic
Patrick 14 years old
Our school Is a clean place but there's a lot of chewing gum on the ground and under tables.
There is almost no waste on the ground so I think yes.
The school doesn't really seperate waste except from paper.
Harmen 14 years old
I think our school is clean indeed.
After every break everything gets cleaned so that's good.
I don’t know if anything happens.
Damian 14 years old
The school is very clean I think.
There are enough janitors that clean the ground.
Yes they do because there are paper bins and I think I also saw plastic bins once for bottles
Diego 15 years old
Overal the school is pretty clean but some places aren't.
I always see people clean and also if I have detention there are a lot of cleaners.
I don’t really know about this.
How did you invite people to respond?
I send them a message, a mail, a call or I just visited them.
How many people have been invited?
10 students, 1 janitor and 4 recycling companies.
What is the response rate?
Everyone responded except from the recycling companies there did only 1 respond
Which group member(s) designed the questions and sent out the questionnaire?
Sven, he was the interviewer
Which platform have you used (mail, social media, survey monkey, others?)
Mail, google and snapchat
Who has processed the results?
Sven
Main research question: How can waste management be realized most effectively at school?
I think it already goes very well with the waste management at our school only the janitors or people responsible for the waste management can keep in mind that almost none of the waste gets seperated. Therefore it will be very difficult to recycle so the best solution for school is to request and oblige waste separation. Especially for plastic, because there are a lot of bottles and plastic bags that now get thrown in the residual waste.
comparison with the indian pupils
The first what we noticed is that the site layout is complety different we have put the questions together and in a sort of way that is became a story. By the indian pupils they have a nice site but they just answerd the questions. In our opinion that is a little weak in a sort of way, it feels more like questions that you have to answer and not because you are really into the questions. What the indian pupils did really nice is, that they also put pictures of the videocomference and pictures when they were interviewing people, with the questions they also have put a picture of who did the question that makes it more personal. The information of the indian pupils is ofcourse a lot different then by us. You see that the school also has a problem with the rubbish that people just throw on the floor. We also have that problem at our school. There are some comparison you can make with the indian pupils, for example the school rubbish we have almost no difference so that doesnt matter if you live in India or in the Netherlands schools have a problem with the wast they produce. But with the approach the schools are very different.
Conclusion
To sum everything up, the school could do more things to help the environment and separate their garbage, but this can’t be done without the help of the students. We too need to separate if the janitors and the school give us the opportunity. We think it would help if you’re reminded for example by using posters which make you realize and maybe throw away your rubbish the proper way. Our interviewer Sven asked some pupils about if they thought the school was clean, if there were enough measures against waste on the floors and if the school does enough to separate the waste in school. He also interviewed a person who works at AREA a company that takes the garbage off the streets and a janitor at our school. The overall result were all together the same.