ABOUT

The Business Bit…

Wastebuster develops children’s sense of responsibility for their environment through the use of a new generation of cutting edge environmental games, workshops, films and websites. The project not only provides tools that help children to do recycling, it also motivates them to encourage change in those around them, such as parents, teachers and peers.

Wastebuster offers a children’s brand - its component parts have a strong entertainment value that facilitates the transition from information provided in the classroom to engagement and increased recycling activity in the home.

The programme has been developed in consultation with pupils, teachers, curriculum consultants and a wide range of environmental educators. A formal academic evaluation of the project pilot in 15 schools, to over 900 participating children, informed the development of the current Wastebuster programme.

The Wastebuster project is now providing schools with an easily accessible, “off the shelf” environmental action plan that can simply and effectively lead to all levels of Eco-Schools accreditation status for each participating school.

Wastebuster in the Curriculum

“Education for sustainable development enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally, that will improve the quality of life now, without damaging the planet for the future.”

The English National Curriculum, QCA 1999

Wastebuster firmly believes in:

• Raising achievement across the Curriculum: especially with respect to PSHE, Citizenship and Education for Sustainable Development
• Involving and educating young people about sustainable issues by making the issues relevant and interesting for them through activities that also enhance learning and widen a pupil’s experience
• The development of thinking skills by providing opportunities for children to make connections between curriculum subjects
• Encouraging schools to employ often-overlooked areas of learning such as the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to make value judgments

Curriculum

Wastebuster has been designed to inspire, inform and empower your children to make sustainable lifestyle choices. The project provides a cross-curricular way to cultivate the knowledge, values and skills needed to address waste issues.

Campus

Wastebuster provides a framework that your school can work within to review your environmental performance on waste. This may lead to further analysis of other issues i.e. energy or water, a reduction in ‘whole-life’ costs, purchasing with environmental consideration and whole school policies on reducing, reusing, recycling and repairing.

Community

Wastebuster provides an opportunity for your school to maximise communications to promote awareness, raise profile, share best practise and partner with other local and global schools in environmental action, sustainable consumption and waste minimisation initiatives.

Building strong partnerships between schools, local authorities, local support networks and organisations that support both project delivery and your school on its path to sustainability is an important aspect of the Wastebuster project

Wastebuster has been designed to fit with the key priorities of Eco-Schools and can be used to support your school working towards a Bronze, Silver and Green Flag award.

Wastebuster also fits into the DCSF’s Sustainable Schools strategy under three of the nine Eco-Schools themes: Waste, Litter and Global Perspectives.

The table below demonstrates how these themes address significant elements of the eight doorways to becoming a Sustainable School, and which questions of the ‘s3’ tool* are similarly linked:

Waste Minimisation	Contributes to	Purchasing & Waste Inclusion & Participation	1.1–6.1, F5, F8
Litter	Contributes to	Purchasing & Waste Inclusion & Participation Local Well-Being	1.1–6.1, F5, F8, F9
Global Perspective	Contributes to	Global Dimension Inclusion & Participation	1.1-6.1, F8, F10

* The ‘s3’ sustainable school self-evaluation tool, developed by the DCSF, is based on the Self-Evaluation Form (SEF) required for your school by Ofsted.

There are links between Wastebuster and the Healthy Schools programme in relation to healthy lifestyle choices and extensive PSHE elements of the programme

Wastebuster shares the vision of ‘The Children’s Plan’ (DCSF 2007) in its aims to support schools in becoming sustainable, empowering children to change their environment, enabling children to believe that they can make a difference to their world.