When Kath Puddey took on the role of Karangi Public School principal, she had no idea it was about to lead her down a garden path. It all started when the school joined with Landcare in a community project to replace camphor laurels – a pesky tree-weed growing on the school grounds and along Karangi Creek – with native vegetation. The project not only transformed Karangi Public into a native wonderland but prompted Ms Puddey to overhaul the school’s environment philosophy.

“It just sent me on a huge environmental journey that I hadn’t planned – it just happened and it was driven by the students and the community,” Ms Puddey said.

Karangi Public’s playground regeneration is just one of the reasons it became the first school to receive the Tom Harvey Award for Citizenship on Commonwealth Day, last term. Usually the award is given to an individual but based on this year’s theme “Our Environment – Our Future”, the organisers decided to award it to a school.

“I was really chuffed in the fact it was a citizenship award … what we do here is not only about improving the school environment but it’s actually about developing the concept of being global citizens – taking time out of your time to do things for others or something else,” Ms Puddey said.

As with the demise of the camphor laurels, the school has taken a similar attitude to waste. Each week students take part in “No Waste Wednesday” and are encouraged to bring to school a recess and lunch which have minimal or no packaging.

For the past few years parents attending the Kindergarten orientation program have also been introduced to the concept and have learned how to prepare a no waste lunch. Prepackaged food such as chips and biscuits are discouraged and a roll of paper lunch wrap is included in the orientation packs as an incentive to use recyclable products.

“What happens with a no waste lunch is it usually equates to a much healthier lunch,” Ms Puddey said. “I would be as brave to say that 70 per cent of our school has a no waste morning tea and lunch everyday.

“On Clean Up Australia Day we were aiming for zero waste. We were so close – we ended up with one plastic spoon and two plastic packets.”