Newcastle high school students are participating in an innovation challenge from March 2, testing out their design skills and working on innovative recycling solutions for local businesses.
The Sustainnovation Challenge is a community capacity-building project involving education, business, industry, and community where city leaders volunteer their expertise and mentor students, helping to develop their skills and work towards a sustainable future.
Created by local company MCB Business Partner and in collaboration with City of Newcastle, the Sustainnovation Challenge consists of four innovative challenges where students work to solve problems, including social inclusion and accessibility, dealing with plastic, planning for an ageing community, and preparing for a creative economy.
Schools participating include San Clemente High School, Merewether High School, Macquarie College, Hunter School of Performing Arts, Newcastle Grammar School, and Bishop Tyrell Anglican College.
In November, Challenge #1 was focused on innovative ideas around how the community could benefit from being a smart and accessible city.
Since then, students from Bishop Tyrell Anglican College and Merewether High have been developing purpose-built learning programs and experiences for teachers to incorporate in the current health, wellbeing, and relationships school curriculum.
This month’s Challenge #2 will focus on how a smart city should deal with plastic and recycling.
The two-day virtual workshop from March 2 to 3 will include a series of preparation and discovery sessions with industry specialists.
Students will then create and pitch their problem-solving ideas to a judging panel.
The most outstanding ideas to emerge from Challenge #2 will progress to City of Newcastle’s Living Lab accelerator program to be further developed and possibly implemented.
Sustainnovation Challenge Program Director Duncan Burck said tapping into students’ creativity, enthusiasm, fresh ideas, and insights was key to the project’s early success.
“We know young people come to problems with fresh thinking,” Duncan said.
“Following the program’s launch in late 2021, their contribution and visions have gone beyond our expectations.”
Workshop presenter and sustainability project manager at Hunter New England Local Health District Elissa Klinkenberg said their target to become waste neutral by 2030 had led to battery recycling and plans to expand paper and cardboard recycling, along with introducing organic waste recycling in staff tea rooms.
“In more recent months, our ‘sustainability champions’ have introduced recycling of IV bags, Kimguard, baby bottles, metal and plastic needle caps,” Klinkenberg said.
According to the NSW Government, an estimated 70 per cent of common waste across businesses in NSW can be reused or recycled, with most cardboard, papers, plastics and food surplus ending up in general bins.
In 2021, Germany held the lead world ranking by recycling 70 per cent of all waste material produced; in contrast, Australia was recycling only 41 per cent of its waste material.
“Recycling isn’t something that is embedded into everyday practices within hospitals or general healthcare settings,” Klinkenberg said.
“It can be and should be.”
Hayley McMahon