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Student writing ~ Luke Moore year 11
Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party of England
and Wales, came to our College in December to discuss
with our Eco Council some of the problems, both local and
general, regarding the environment, as well as potential
ideas for ecological improvement in our school.
She told us about a twenty-five year public contract Devon
County Council has with a private company to build an
incinerator. An incinerator burns waste to produce energy,
which seemed like a good idea to the old County Council
when they began this contract. However, I think it would
be both more cost effective and more energy efficient to
recycle the waste rather that incinerate it. As well as this,
the privatisation of this industry means that the council
would be losing twenty-four percent of its staff, which
consists of well-trained individuals. Incineration would
therefore be making money from the waste produced,
but it would not go to the Council, and consequently the
community, but to the private market. Natalie Bennett
told us she thinks that the money from any public
contracts should go back into the community. The issue
with incineration is that a similar situation to one which
is taking place in Sweden may arise, where they have run
out of waste to feed the incinerator. The problem then
is that it takes waste in at such a rate that the Council
may end up having to produce more waste to feed the
machine, and therefore they would be wasting money.
Natalie Bennett told us that the Green Party would
'Reverse all further planned incinerators and terminate
all incineration contracts where possible.' Norfolk County
Council had the same problem and have found it cheaper
to discontinue the contract rather than see it through.
Young Co-ops
An alternative method of converting waste into energy is
plasma gasification. Plasma gasification separates metal
toxins which gets money back from the process. Plasma
gasification and anaerobic digestion provide a safe,
efficient, sustainable way to convert waste into electricity
and gas.
We also talked about the plans that we have at KEVICC for
separation at source as a recycling technique, a technique
widely implemented throughout Devon. Separation at
source is the using of different bins for different types of
waste, such as paper bins that we have at KEVICC. However,
at KEVICC we are working towards bringing in up to four
separate types of bins, such as food waste and plastic, as
well as keeping our waste paper bins and general waste
bins (which are sent to landfill sites). However, the main
issue with this type of recycling is not with the design but
with the users – us. The issue being that if a bin is used
incorrectly, the whole bag is then contaminated and is
sent to a landfill. So what we must do if these bins are to
be put in place is work hard to create an 'atmosphere' of
using them effectively. This would mean that when new
students join the school, there is a system in place to
guide them. Also, should the contract for the incinerator
go ahead, the recycled materials should go through
South Hams District Council, as otherwise the materials
would go to the incinerator, rather than being properly
recycled. In Germany the system of separation at source
has worked very well, with every train carriage B platform
having four separate types of bins.
Natalie Bennett had some thoughts on other ways to
improve the schools environmental capabilities. One
way was by reducing the energy consumption of the
school. This way was through a system for turning off the
switches in rooms. In this system every switch would have
a colour red - meaning never turn off, orange - meaning
ask a member of staff if it should be turned off and green
- meaning always turn off if no one else is around. In this
way, the system would reduce the ambiguity of what
should happen to the switches and hopefully reduce the
amount of electricity used by the college.
Another more long-term project for the College, one which
is already under way, is replacing all of the polystyrene
food packaging in the canteen with cardboard, recyclable,
containers which would drastically reduce the amount of
waste going to landfill sites.
Our Young Co-op Eco Council
recently applied to Devon County
Council for their
Cutting Your
Wasteline
grant and were delighted
to be awarded £1,225 towards their
separator bins initiative. Once they
are in place, we will be able to
separate our wastemore effectively.
Sixth Form Hustings
Sixth Formers enjoyed
a mock election debate
during the Creative
Learning Day in March.
The five parties began
by each attempting
to gain support from
Principal Alan Salt.
