School teacher wastes nothing to champion recycling

05 Oct 2016

By The Record

Emmanuel Catholic College teacher Kylie Kingdon, who was recently awarded the 2016 Waste Champion category at this year’s Liberal National Government’s Infinity Awards, displays her award alongside 2017 College Captain, Alex Smith. Photo: Supplied

Emmanuel Catholic College teacher Kylie Kingdon was recently awarded the 2016 Waste Champion category at this year’s Liberal National Government’s Infinity Awards.

The Infinity Awards have been recognising excellence in waste reduction and recycling in Western Australia since 2010.

Mrs Kingdon was awarded the 2016 Waste Champion category for introducing initiatives that resulted in nearly 90 per cent of the college’s drink cans being recycled.

Her initiatives for all canteen food scraps to be sent to worm farms and 50 per cent fewer bottles of water being sold at the college were also recognised.

This year’s winners were announced by Environment Minister, Albert Jacob, at the Waste and Recycle 2016 Conference, held in Perth from 14 to 16 September.

Mr Jacob said the awards provided important recognition for projects that helped change people’s behaviour around waste and recycling in line with the Western Australian Waste Strategy: Creating the right environment.

“The Infinity Awards reflect the passion and inventiveness of waste reduction and recycling projects that inform and inspire the wider community,” he said.

“The diverse entries this year show the value of efforts made by schools, community groups, businesses and government to reduce waste and I applaud the contributions made by all.

“While the State’s performance has improved recently, we can still do better when it comes to recycling.”

Emmanuel Catholic College also won the Waste Wise Schools award, an award which aims to tackles the issues of “reduce, re-use and recycle” through a litter task force and Enviro Club and an investment in the Waste Wise Schools cross-curriculum project “Message in a Plastic Bottle”.

Mindarie Regional Council, which worked to stop glass contamination in general waste bins, was also decorated the local government category award, while Perth Zoo’s conversion of animal waste into compost landed the State Government category.

Other Infinity Award winners included Bristile Roofing and WA Brickmatch, which jointly won an award in the business category and West Arthur Community Resource Centre, which was recognised in the community category.