Support EPR Responsibilities
The Zero Waste Toolkit was developed in response to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act, section 18. Invest into long lasting systems that create and foster the circular economy for plastic (and more).
We partner with Corporates to invest in and build infrastructure for the Circular Economy with schools as a strategic avenue. Align us with your CSR/CSI/LED strategy, benefit from being EPR compliant and help us scale this offering across South Africa.
We have an opportunity to train all the schools Polyco is working with through the Pick n Pay Schools Club. We are looking to take our training to the next level and get them accredited.
With the support of Polyco, we have managed to align and contextualise waste curriculum for South African primary school classrooms. We are implementing the Zero Waste Toolkit in 5 high schools and require waste curriculum to drive deepened education in the classroom and behaviour change.
Schools provide a platform to extend into their community of parents and households. We can extend action against the waste crisis by providing parents and citizens the tools and resources to do the same.
With each school, we start changing mindsets and behaviour around waste with an entire community. Help us reach more schools, divert more waste from landfill and build the circular waste economy.
The Zero Waste Toolkit was developed in response to the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act, section 18. Invest into long lasting systems that create and foster the circular economy for plastic (and more).
Based in the United States, Eco-Rise is one of our curriculum partners.
With Polyco’s support, Plant The Seed has been able to contextualise and align waste curricula for primary school teachers to access and implement in South African classrooms.
The Greater Tygerberg Partnership are the founders and incubators of the Zero Waste Toolkit. We have partnered with them to scale the service outside of their geographical mandate.
Schools go from no waste management infrastructure or educational setup to a fully functioning recycling, composting and eco-bricking system with supporting training rollout.
Because of our international partnerships with Eco-Rise and ThoughtBox, we have access to curriculum that no one else has in South Africa.
Our curriculum is aligned with the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS), which is a single, comprehensive, and concise policy document introduced by the Department of Basic Education in South Africa.
Plant the Seed partners up schools with recycling companies to start earning a rebate from the recycling the school generates. In addition, we provide training to ensure the sustainability of the project.
We have years of experience in curriculum and education design along with years of workshop and training experience.
We have a thorough monitoring and evaluation process built into each project to ensure the quality and sustainability of operations. In addition, you'll receive data for reports so that you can measure the impact in the communities in which you operate.
There are many benefits for a corporate investor and funder. A significant benefit is the impact measurables we provide you to include in your sustainability, corporate citizen and CSI reports. Over and above providing you with measurable data and insights from our feedback, we also offer:
Financial Incentives
The school management and governing body is incentivised to manage their waste effectively to:
Behaviour Change Campaigns
Education and training as a behaviour change driver. (Our monitoring and evaluation system reinforce this – see M&E for more details)
Yes, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) is included in the budget. Our M&E process last for the entire first year of implementation and caters for on-site visits every quarter/school term and additional consulting and training hours to address any pain points or problems identified in the implementation of the system.
Yes, we have a growing database of which materials are collected in schools. These materials include aluminium tin, plastic (PET 1, HDPE 2, PS 6, LDPE 4, Tetra Pak), and glass (not as common). There is also a significant amount of food waste generated by school, specifically at schools with feeding schemes. We help schools implement food waste systems using a combination of Bokashi bins and composting – we are in the process of finding a method for tracking this data.
We collect initial data from our waste audits which use a sample size of bins to identify and extrapolate the average types of waste a school generates; these inform the infrastructure we design and implement at a school. We collate all our waste audit data across schools to get an idea of what a typical school might generate. For each school we also collect and compile data from our partner recyclers from the invoices they send to schools which contains amount of waste for each specific waste type. This data is also collated into an overall dataset.
We are developing relationships and partnerships with organisations (such as Partners for Possibility) that already have strong and well-established relationships with schools, specifically school management. We go through these partner networks to invite schools to apply for the Zero Waste Service. We only work with schools that have completed the application as this is a good sign of intent and commitment to the service.
Our application process:
Implementation of the system infrastructure and training take a maximum of 4-5 weeks:
Monitoring and evaluation runs over the course of the year of implementation:
We aim to work with recyclers who:
If we are unhappy with the services of a recycler, we will cancel their service and partner the school with a new recycling partner.
We are educating and implementing systems for the circular waste economy. Our Zero Waste Toolkit provides waste management infrastructure (recycling and food waste), robust educational training for teachers and learners, and a comprehensive curriculum for teachers to use in the classroom.
Our Zero Waste Toolkit service is holistic:
Learnings:
Successes:
Failures:
This is currently one of our biggest challenges and a top priority for us. We are looking to address this challenge by:
Our Zero Waste Toolkit service at schools, we don’t aim to bring waste pickers (informal recycling economy) in as it is a separate avenue and can create overlaps and possible security threats to a school.
Our partner organisation (the Greater Tygerberg Partnership) has a buy-back centre in action in Bellville which accommodates waste from waste pickers. Some corporates are interested in implementing buy-back centres, however, while this can be done, our current focus is not on this aspect, rather on schools.
Security is a reality and something we must consider in schools from lower-resourced communities. The items under threat are the bin infrastructure and the actual separated recycling at the recycling depot. However, it is something that is out of our control in many instances and can become quite expensive. Schools will also have different approaches as to how they want and can deal with security. We will have discussions with each school to navigate how we could implement security measures that are suitable and affordable for their context. Here is our initial thinking around security and examples of what some schools have done:
We address these concerns through:
We are looking for progressive partners who can partner with us in rolling out this programme in over 50 schools in 2022 and 2023. Interested in joining us? Simply fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch.
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