Wastebuster is a not-for-profit environmental education programme provided free to Cheshire West & Chester primary and secondary schools by the Cheshire West Recycling and Cheshire West & Chester Council. The Wastebuster website provides access to lessons, assemblies, films, toolkits, and campaigns to support the cross-curricular teaching of 5-7, 7-11 and 11-16 year olds.

Wastebuster helps schools reduce waste, recycle more, and promote care for the environment in the classroom, on campus, and in the wider community. For more information, please contact info@wastebuster.co.uk.

The resource library contains a wide range of resources such as interactive year planners, guides, videos, assembly presentations, lesson plans, crafts and collections of resources appropriate for delivering waste and recycling campaigns, waste audits, theme weeks and eco-team activities.

Recycling Rewards are designed to give schools and communities an opportunity to recycle to get rewards for their school. The programme can get your school collecting items not typically collected from households for recycling, such as toys, textiles, and batteries, through school and retail collections. Participating primary schools are rewarded with vouchers to buy a fantastic discounted range of fiction and non-fiction books suitable for early years through to 11-year-olds, from the Harper Collins Recycle to Read book catalogue. Secondary schools can take part in textile and battery recycling and can get cash rewards.

Get in touch, we are happy to help and offer advice. If you would like someone to come in and present an assembly to launch a waste saving campaign in your school, you can email us at info@wastebuster.co.uk and we can organise this for you.

• What is the Climate Action Planner?
  The Climate Action Planner is a comprehensive tool designed to assist schools you in developing and implementing effective strategies for waste minimisation and energy and water efficiency. The efficiency your school savings schools makes can be tracked in their Your Savings Account.
• How does the Climate Action Planner work?
  The Climate Action Planner can be found in the main menu of the website on the Climate Action Planner page. First you will be asked a series of short questions, to find out what you would like to focus on. The planner then provides a structured framework for assessing current environmental impact and points to action plans tailored to specific needs and priorities, which can be undertaken in clear steps. The planner offers a range of resources for teachers to use, plus easy to follow campaigns and includes data analysis tools so actual results can be tracked.
• Who can benefit from using the Climate Action Planner?
  The Climate Action Planner is suitable for anyone committed to increasing sustainability in schools. Business Managers or Heads may find it useful to create a Climate Action Plan or to hold an environmental review and find ways to reduce waste, energy and water or recycle / reuse more or procure less. Eco Team Leaders may find it helpful to plan environmental campaigns in school.
• What can I use the Climate Action Planner for?
  The Climate Action Planner can be used to create the waste part of a Climate Action Plan and to create a joined-up school strategy on waste. It can also help your school hold an environmental review, providing the steps and resources to support this. The planner can help teachers with Eco Team planning and strategy.
• Where is my Action Plan kept?
  Once your Climate Action Plan has been completed, your plan is saved in Your Account, found at the top right-hand corner of the website. “Your Action Plan” will be saved on the fifth tab. Actions can be marked as complete or removed.
• Is the Climate Action Planner accessible to everyone?
  The Climate Action Planner is accessible and free to use to all Cheshire West state-funded primary and secondary schools, through support from their local waste partnership.  
• Are all the resources referenced in the Climate Action Planner free to use?
  If your school has a paid for membership, all resources are free to use. All Cheshire West primary and secondary state schools have free membership.

• What is ‘Your Savings Account’?
  Your Savings Account can help manage your school’s Climate Action Plan on waste, energy and water. You can monitor improvements in your environmental performance, find out your carbon savings, track your financial savings and rewards earned from completing activities and access statements.
• Where can I find ‘Your Savings Account’?
  Your Savings Account can be found in the top right hand corner of the website, in the Your Account section.
• How can I use my Your Savings Account to help me track my environmental savings?
  Your Savings Account will help you manage and track your school’s environmental savings on waste, energy and water. You can monitor improvements in your environmental performance, find out your carbon savings, track your financial savings and rewards earned from completing activities and access current and historical statements.
• How can I use my Your Savings Account to help me track my financial savings or financial earnings?
  In Your Savings Account, there are four tabs focussing on waste and recycling, recycling rewards, energy and water. At the bottom of each tab there is a summary of annual savings.
• How can I use my Your Savings Account to see what recycling rewards I have earnt by recycling with Wastebuster?
  Go to the Recycling Rewards tab in Your Savings Account and you will find your statement for recycling rewards.
• Can I assess my school’s carbon footprint with Wastebuster?
  By entering the amount of waste, energy and water your school is using in Your Account, you will be able to see your school’s carbon saving for waste.
• How do I find out how to enter my waste, energy and water data into my account?
  Use the Climate Action Planner to help you audit your school’s waste, energy and water. You can also use historic bills for energy and water and input this data into Your Savings Account.
• How do I access account statements?
  Account statements can be found in Your Accounts, in the top right-hand corner of your homepage. Scroll down to the bottom of each waste tab and you will find an account statement that can be downloaded.
• Can I enter details of our school’s environmental achievements or recycling rewards achievements from any campaign in my Savings Account (not just Wastebusters)?
  Yes, you can input rewards earnt by other recycling schemes on the Recycling Rewards tab, (found in Your Savings Account).

You can sign up to our national campaigns (Waste Week, Water Week, Switch Off Fortnight) on the Pod. Go to https://jointhepod.org/campaigns and chose which campaigns you would like to take part in. To sign up to a campaign, you will need to be registered with the Pod first. You can register here – https://jointhepod.org/registration.

The Pod is a part of Wastebusters and is Wastebusters’ campaign platform, where all of our national campaigns are run.

You will need to sign up to the Pod, as well as Wastebuster. You can sign up to the Pod here – https://jointhepod.org/registration.

The Climate Action Planner is designed to help you create waste saving campaigns for your school. Go to the Climate Action Planner, which can be found in the main menu on the Wastebusters’ website. The tool offers the option to focus on either waste, energy and transport or water and will then offer the option for you to select “deliver a campaign”. The planner will then show you the steps and resources you need to carry out the campaign.

If you have forgotten your password, you can contact us and we will send a new one.

If you need help registering with the Pod, you can contact us and we will help you to register.

Your school has one login, which can be shared between staff members.