Hampton Park Primary School is building on years of experience to continue improving its waste education program.
The school, in Perth’s north-eastern suburbs, has more than 15 years of WasteSorted Schools accreditation and recently held a major audit which identified further opportunities to reduce food waste and revitalise its composting system.
Each classroom now has a dedicated food scraps bin which is emptied twice a week by Year 4 Waste Warriors. These students play a central role in the program by sorting scraps, feeding the worm farms, transferring remaining waste into one of five compost cones and rinsing the bins before returning them to classrooms.
Once ready, the nutrient‑rich compost is used across the school’s edible garden beds.
All students join sustainability lessons in the garden, where they take on responsibilities such as aerating and watering compost, checking worm farms, planting, weeding, sweeping and general maintenance. The garden remains open to enjoy throughout the day and the students demonstrate strong care and stewardship of the space.
The composting and garden program is overseen by Lisa Bowden, a Year 4 classroom teacher and the school’s sustainability teacher. Lisa delivers weekly sustainability lessons to each class, Years 3-6 in first semester and Years 1–2 in second semester. She also integrates the cross-curriculum priority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures by teaching Noongar seasons and language during these lessons.
Pre‑primary students run their own waste‑reduction system led by Allison Annett and the early years team. Their food scraps are processed through worm farms and buried subpods in raised garden beds.
The school is also home to Henton Park, an impressive chicken coop built from recycled pallets by school gardener Sandro. Sustainability student councillors feed the chickens using canteen scraps and the eggs are returned to the canteen, successfully creating a closed‑loop system. Plans for a mobile chicken coop will allow the feathered favourites to visit the pre‑primary area each week.
Beyond organic waste, the school maintains a broad range of recycling practices. Each classroom has a paper recycling bin emptied by student councillors. Several classes also collect hard‑to‑recycle items such as pens, texters, blankets, supermarket bags and oral care products. Students who bring items for recycling receive tokens as part of a reward system for positive contributions to school values.
The school also promotes waste‑free lunches through a two‑week challenge where students earn raffle tickets for bringing a waste‑free lunchbox each day. The highly successful initiative is expanding in 2026.
To encourage sustainable habits at home, the school shares practical waste‑reduction tips in its newsletter each week for a full term. The P&C committee also manages a Containers for Change collection point on site.