Aspley Special School funds new technology through recycling program
A north Brisbane school has been recycling goods for decades, and as their program continues to grow, their students continue to benefit. Find out how you can help.
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REDUCE and reuse is the motto at Aspley Special School where recycling is big business.
The school runs the Kingfisher Recycling Centre where they collect everything, from bottles and cans to washing machines and computers, with the goal of repurposing the items, and in turn raising money for the school.
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Principal Chesleigh Hargreaves said the recycling centre was an important part of the school’s curriculum, and they were always looking for more goods to be donated.
“We started doing this well before the refund scheme came in, and we take all sorts of things, not just the ten cent bottles,” he said.
“We also clean up donated bottles and sell them to the community for about five cents each, instead of letting them go into landfill, and any money we get goes back into the students.
“For example, some of our students don’t have a voice, so we’ve bought technology to help them from the money raised through the recycling centre.
“We get a lot of schools calling up and giving us their old computers, we then take the parts out and take them to places that can reuse them in exchange for some money.”
Mr Hargreaves said the students loved working on the recycling program, and it taught them valuable skills like teamwork and collaboration.
“We’ve also got about 30 wonderful adult volunteers, and they do some of the more fine motor things that can be more difficult for our students,” he said.
“They do some sorting and pull apart computers. There’s a lot of time that goes in to separating the ram from the motherboard, from the power supply and all of that, so the volunteers do a lot of that but the students who can, help out as well.”
The recycling centre also has a Brisbane City Council composting hub where anyone can deposit food waste, which turns into compost for the school’s grounds.
Mr Hargreaves said they would welcome donations of all kinds, and the school was thankful for the generosity the community had shown them so far.
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