Volume 1, Issue 2
January 2015
The Final Countdown to a Green Flag
What a busy year for the Green Schools in Corpus Christi it has been! We have done so many
things over the past two years as part of our green flag campaign.
Some of the different things we have done this school year, include an Action Day for recycling. This was a great day in the school and all classes really got on board. We had poster
competitions to raise awareness of recycling and ran a slogan competition for new slogans for
our bathrooms. We had lots and lots of entries and the winners can be seen on the Green
Schools Board. As part of the Action Day 6th class went litter picking with their Book Buddies in Junior Infants. Ms.
Reynolds’ class in Room 2 learnt a recycling rap and Mrs.
Bourke’s class became song writers by re-cycling some songs to fit in with our litter and waste
theme! All classes included recycling in one subject or more during the day.
We have done many other things leading up to Christmas including our Hallowe’en Costume
competition. Our winners were Elizabeth (Fifth Class), the Nikon Camera, Amy (Sixth Class), a
purple minion and Jess (First Class) who dressed up as a Skelecopter. Lots of girls put a huge
amount of effort into using recyclable materials to create costumes for our catwalk!
Earlier in the year the Green Schools Committee carried out a survey on how many milk cartons we were wasting in the school. At first the numbers were very high but now they are
much lower. We now empty out the left over milk in the sink and
recycle the cartons. (more
about this later)
The teachers have become greener in the past few months also, they have gone digital, they
have been reducing waste by emailing notices to each other instead of writing notes on paper.
Our fifth classes have been busy tidying up the school garden with help from
teachers and Tony!
parents,
This year we expanded our committee, we brought in girls from Junior Infants– Second Class.
They are called ‘The Green Queens’ and their role is to take care of recycling and litter in
their own classroom.
Next week an inspector from The Green Schools Programme will be visiting the school. She
will be talking to the committee and checking out all of our
achievements. She will be
making sure we are doing everything that we should be doing. (fingers crossed)
That’s all from us for now! Don’t forget to reduce, re-use and recycle!
Adele Mc Kenna & Fíonagh Lambe
The Carton Crisis
Corpus Christi receive 269 cartons daily. Last year at least 68 of these
cartons were thrown out. If we don’t recycle our cartons, that is about
340 cartons a week, 1360 cartons a month and a shocking 12,444 cartons
a year.
We have been working really hard to decrease the amount of milk cartons
thrown out every day. The Green Schools Committee brainstormed how we
could solve this crisis and as you can see -> we have really improved. In
some classrooms we have special methods to make sure that people take
their ‘bainne’ by writing their initials on the cartons, ticking their name off
a list and by giving one girl the job of handing out all of the milk. When
milk is not taken we empty it out, rinse the carton and put the carton into
the recycling.
As you can see we have made a fantastic improvement and long may
it continue!
Amy O’Gorman & Anna Mcloughlin
In this issue:
The Final Countdown
Page 1
The Carton Crisis
Page 1
A Greener Lunch Box
Page 2
Photo Parade
Page 2
Reduce, Reuse
Page 2
and Recycle at home
Costume Competition Winners
A Greener Lunch Box
As part of our Action Day we
surveyed different classrooms on
the waste in their lunch box. We
found that we could make our
lunches greener by changing
very small things!
Every day people bring in packed
lunches and they use lunch bags
and boxes to carry them, this is
great because they can be re-used
for years! Sometimes the things
inside them are not so green!
We’re talking about the cling film
that wraps your sandwiches or the
tinfoil that wraps your crackers!
Very few people re-use these and
they go straight into the waste
bin. A better way to keep your
lunch green would be to use paper
bags or Zip-lock bags so you can re
-use them or recycle them in the
Green Bin. Another way to keep
your lunch green is to use beakers
or re-use plastic bottles. A lot of
people are already doing this but
we would love to see more people
jump on the green lunch train!
Follow these top tips
for a more environmentally friendly
lunch box!
Bringing the Three
Rs Home!
Back to the Basics!
The world recycles because if we
don’t we wouldn't have enough space,
the sea would be full of rubbish and  Recycling just one plastic bottle
there would be a lot more litter. We
will save enough energy to power
have done a huge amount to reduce
60 watt light bulbs for three
our waste and litter in Corpus
hours.
Christi, we would like to give you tips
on how to continue this good work at Be sure to REUSE: Think before
home.
you throw away a tin, a jar, a cardboard box, a yoghurt cup, a shampoo
It is important to recycle and use
bottle, think about what you could
your bins correctly!
reuse these items for:
Black Bin— items that are not bio
degradable, (Try to avoid this bin by
recycling your rubbish)
Green Bin—Paper, card, tins, plastic
bottles.
Brown Bin– Organic waste such as
food, pencil parings and gardening

waste (grass etc). Earthworms will
process this into compost for plants.
Think before you throw away a tin, a
jar, a cardboard box, a yoghurt cup,
a shampoo bottle, think about what
this could mean!
Be sure to RECYCLE:

Aluminium cans can be recycled
into: Soda Cans, pie plates, licence plates, thumbtacks, aluminium foil and many other
items. By recycling one can, you
can save enough energy to power
a TV for up to three hours!
Éabha &
Jazmin

Photo
Parade
Glass takes over 1,000,000
years to decompose in landfill,
when recycled glass is melted
down and reshaped into new
products!
Soap bottles, jars, biscuit tins,
sweet twins and yoghurt cartons
can be used for a wide variety of
arts and crafts, from holding
paints and materials to great
constructions.
Jars can be used during cooking,
to make salad dressing or store
jams and yummy home-made
sauces.
Be sure to REDUCE

Use two sides of paper.

Choose products wisely, make
sure the packet can be recycled.

Don’t use a lot of plastic bags,
get re-usable ones!

Use only one bag when shopping.

Don’t use a plastic bag when buying fruit and Veg.
Stick to these tips to bring the 3 Rs
Home!
Isabelle Taylor
& Sorcha Conway