Werribee Waste Warriors
Aravind, Muhammad, Hayyan, Zarah, Abbas, Navid
Global Ambassadors at Werribee Secondary College
Contact: Joanna Sommers (joanna.sommers@education.vic.gov.au)
Global Ambassadors at Werribee Secondary College
Werribee Secondary College is a Years 7-12 school in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The school runs the IB Diploma Program at years 11 and 12 and is accredited by the Council of International Schools. In 2023, the College was awarded the Dr Lawrie Shears Global Teaching and Learning Award at the Victorian Education Excellence Awards for its work on global citizenship and intercultural learning.
Signing Up as Global Ambassadors
When our Assistant Principal put out the call for students to join a Global Citizen project, we were excited to learn more about global issues, and before we knew it we found ourselves in a virtual classroom with students from other schools staring back at us. The label ‘Global Ambassador’ certainly felt ambitious, but through the Global Citizen online sessions that took place throughout a year, our group of six Year 11 and 12 students quickly developed the skills to see ourselves as changemakers and advocates for real change in our own community.
One of the first things we learnt about in this program were the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We had never really spent much time interacting with these goals, so it was really interesting to learn about them and begin to see ourselves as being responsible for helping the world achieve them.
Our Student Action Project
The project involved interacting and participating in a number of online sessions with students from other schools, and then working as a team in our own school during lunchtimes to generate and develop an action project based for our own community, based on the UN SDG’s. After many sessions, and with guidance from our teacher, we decided to focus on the SDGs 12: Responsible Consumption and Production and 15: Life on Land, as we believe that the former greatly impacts the latter. In particular, we decided that we would try to do something about waste on our school campus, as we believed it was a local problem that has global ramifications.
The fight to reduce plastic products has been an ongoing issue worldwide for many years. But we often don’t take adequate action to fight against it as we believe that a small change won’t make a difference. However, we all know the damage that plastic waste is causing to our planet, and more locally, our own neighbourhood, which in this case, the Werribee River, which is home to a sizable platypus population.
To combat peoples’ mindsets about the consumption of plastic products, our team decided to take action and prove to people that reducing plastic consumption within our school community can have a positive and lasting impact more broadly. Thus, the Werribee Waste Warriors were born.
The Dirty Work
A real challenge for our team was how to communicate our project within our school community and gain support from our peers. Working with our supervising teacher, we decided to show our school community how much rubbish we produce, rather than just telling them.
Over the span of a week, our team went around the school to collect plastic waste after recess and lunch. Within the first hour, we picked up three bags' worth of rubbish, which was mostly plastic. We found it mainly scattered underneath stairs, fences, and near water drains. This experience shocked our group as we don’t always notice the plastic waste within our school. Our tight schedules, classwork, and friends are the only things most of us are concerned about when we are at school. When we ignore what we think is just a minor thing, like an empty chip packet wedged between lockers, we fail to notice how these can cause long-term issues and potentially degrade our natural environment.
Our group continued collecting plastic around the school for the next few days. By the end of the week, we had collected over 10 bags, which our teacher kindly looked after in her office (until it started to stink!). The bags contained a variety of plastic waste, mainly composed of chips bags, plastic bottles, straws, and cling wraps. Much of the plastic waste we found was small, such as the plastic packaging of straws. The small sized plastic means they are more prone to ending up in rivers and oceans, carried there by local drainage.
Whole School Assembly
Global Ambassadors at Werribee Secondary College
We shared our findings the following week during our whole- school assembly. We piled all 10 clear bags of rubbish onto the stage, which immediately attracted the attention of many students within our school. The quantity of trash our school community produced in only one week was startling, which was shown on the many faces in the crowd. Through this small act, our team was able to emphasise the importance of responsibility when it comes to using plastic products, which is one of our school values.
You see, during the assembly we showed everyone the truth. We showed everyone the bags of waste that polluted our school, waste that we are directly responsible for. For everyone there, the sheer amount of rubbish piled up in front of us served as a wake-up call. This meaningful event awoke a sense of collective commitment to take action and lessen our environmental footprint.
As Global Ambassadors, we realised that this raising awareness was only the first step. We needed to provide our school community with the resources required to make a positive change in our routines and behaviours.
Old and new media
We used both old and new media to get our message out there. One group member spearheaded both the outreach and physical materials for the group, and his skills in web design resulted in a website that acted as the central hub for the project.
Student poster
Using new media, such as Instagram, made sure that the Global Ambassador project's message reached students online with a wealth of information on environmental conservation and tips for reducing plastic waste, which we researched and collated during our team sessions. We then took it a step further by creating eye-catching posters displayed strategically around the school in areas prone to littering. These posters, with bright colours and powerful images, reinforced the importance of Sustainability by promoting discounts for using reusable lunch boxes at our own canteen - an initiative that came out of this project - and encouraging mindfulness in litter hotspots. The posters were constant reminders of the Project's mission.
The website and posters worked together to enhance the Global Ambassador Project's reach and influence. Our commitment to engaging both online and offline platforms ensured that students of all ages were inspired to take action and cultivate a sense of community dedicated to combating plastic pollution in their school.
We heavily utilised Instagram to spread our message, including the creation of a rap. Together we injected a burst of creativity with tunes and lyrics that not only educated, but also entertained our peers about environmental issues.
Project website
The Instagram rap wasn't aimed to be a trend; it was a call to action. Through social media influence, our goal was to transform apathy towards pollution into a movement for change. Each post was carefully crafted to inform, inspire and engage students in our project’s progress. Whether sharing tips on reducing plastic use or promoting eco-deals in the school canteen, every update aimed to unite the community in caring for our environment.
Beyond music and online presence, we also added humour and originality to our Instagram campaign. Memes and interactive posts kept followers engaged. Our unique approach transformed what could have been a dull message, into an enjoyable and relatable movement that resonated with students.
Challenges and Successes
Perhaps our biggest success was in negotiating a discount with our school canteen. We struck a deal with canteen management: if students brought their own reusable container to the canteen, they could get a 50c discount off their food. This was hugely popular amongst students, and not only promoted our message but actively cut down on plastic waste in our school.
One challenge is in growing our group to include more student members and ensure it remains active after some of us graduate this year. We have multiple environmental groups in the school, so our next step is to try and merge these groups into one so that we have a larger impact.
We are so proud of the leadership skills we have developed throughout this process, which have made a clear impact within our school community. Looking ahead, we want to build on our efforts to partner with local community environmental groups and become true Global Ambassadors beyond our school gates.
“Perhaps the best aspect of being involved in this project was seeing the students grow in confidence around their capacity to be change agents and leaders. The online component of the program really deepened their understanding of the UN SDG’s and how they were directly relevant and connected to their school, local and global communities. It was on campus though where they applied these understandings to their actions using their student voice, which added so much value to our school community and to these students’ own capabilities.”
Global Ambassadors at Werribee Secondary College presenting at the National Education Summit