The Big Battery Rescue has returned for another year, and one local school is eyeing off a big campaign of collecting.
Gilgai Plains Primary School in Kalkallo has been a participant in the program for the last three years, which aims to help the environment by diverting as many batteries as possible away from landfill.
Assistant principal Scott Woolcock said Gilgai Plains was encouraged to join the campaign by partners Stockland, but have continued on their own.
“We first were invited to the program as it is sponsored by Stockland, Stockland is a big supporter of the school. We have gained a lot from being part of the Big Battery Rescue, our students have learnt lessons on looking after the environment and the amount of unnecessary rubbish that ends up in landfill each year,” he said.
“We had a performance earlier in the year from the National Theatre for Children that emphasised the fact that 14,000 tonnes of batteries end up in landfill each year.”
He encourages other schools to join in on the initiative, but warns that they are striving to be hard to beat as Melbourne’s norths best recyclers.
“Last year we finished in 19th place nationally with 159kg of batteries, but this year we are hoping to crack the top 10, which would be around an average 380g of batteries per student,” he said.
Schools that sign up receive free recycling kits and a large battery bin that is regularly collected and recycled.
Join: www.bigbatteryrescue.com/
Gerald Lynch
