Introduction

 

In founders there are 70+/- boys who eat, sleep and work for at least five days week some 7 in Founders. With this comes a lot of cost with aspects such as food security and loss of biodiversity.

Outside Founders being in quite a busy area of the campus gives place to many motorcars, which drive past hour by hour. This has a huge effect on the carbon emissions surrounded by Founders. Founders also have a well run kitchen which has four ovens a microwave, many stoves and a walk in refirgerator. These all use up a lot of electricity and are used for 16-18 hours a day.


In the lawn of founders it is 20 by 25 times 4 as there are 4 lawns in the ‘quad’. It is a normal grass garden which gets weeded every few days and fed with sprinkles of water more often in the summer about twice/three times a day in the day and never in the winter. (Water conservation)

Food Security - Application Phase

How are we going to deal with these food security issues?

-  What are we actually eating?

Sometimes when we are eating amongst ourselves we don’t actually know what we may be eating. Especially with the amount of rubbish they put in to food in general nowadays. In the boarding house, our vegetables and fruit could be genetically engineered and it would be better if we were getting the best nutrients out of our vegetables and fruit. An Idea would to only start buying specific vegetables, such as organic. This would cost much more than the other vegetables, but wouldn’t you rather be eating something you know surely your body is benefiting from it. Another thing they do with vegetables in Founders is that they overboil the vegetables, which just takes all the goodness out of them and defies the taste. 

-  Do we realise how much simply gets thrown away?

The biggest food security issue we have in Founders is food wastage. This is a huge disapointment in my thoughts as it is just such an easy aspect to fix. Food gets wasted like its nothing week in week out. Between meals, Dinner is the least eaten…due to the fact that is honestly usually the least exciting.

What are we going to do?

-  Organic: We will first show and recommend the initiative towards the Head of foods of each boarding house and see what they think of the idea for their houses. If they are in they are in.  Once we start to speak about the change up to organic vegetables to the catering company they should be able to adjust. Also in the long term there could be a chance of us, Founders’ to open up a vegetable farm alongside the Oaks.  What we could do is talk to the staff and ask them to decrease the amount of time they boil the vegetables, this would make them more attractive on a plate and better tasting. Which means less food wastage.

-  Waste: Just as I said about dinner being the main meal of the day where the most food is wasted, things would need to change. This could be due to the fact of boys from after school till supper going to silwood and stuffing themselves but that is besides the point.  What we are going to do is make the boys more knowledgable about what effect they actually have, when they dump their plates full of food in the bin. We are going to do this by placing multiple infographics about food wastage and the amount of starving people in todays world who would die to eat a few slices of bread etc. I will  also be placing biodegradable bins for biodegradable waste for such things such as the vegetables in the dining hall and in the kitchen. So at least it will minimise the total waste to an extent

  REFERENCES:

-               http://cdn.marxist.com/images/stories/science/gmo.jpg

-               http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/consumervoice/images/food_waste.jpg

-               https://www.google.co.za/search?q=monoculture+farming&espv=2&biw=1120&bih=608&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMItf-zwqvoxwIV4WfbCh1i6wPX#imgrc=FBCN9PDBtKfcgM%3A

-               Shuter’s TOP CLASS – Life Sciences – Grade 11

-               Hesther – Kitchen Staff in the Founders

-               Mr Mallet- Weeds in the grass, grass is watered during the day...

-              http://i00.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/50006811122_4/Bioclean_compost_for_biodegradable_waste_products_from.jp  Powerpoint – Biology -  Grade 11 – Human Impact on the Environment

Solid Waste Disposal and Recycling 

Being a boarder at Bishops comes with its pros and cons regarding the environment, ranging from energy usage to refuse and recycling.

Looking particular at the senior grades who stay in single and double studies, where there are not five or six other boys telling you to keep your area clean. Junior grades are generally less responsible and wont really actively look to recycle.

Boys will be boys and unlikely clean up “properly” after themselves. More often than out, boys will throw everything considered rubbish into the bin and forget about it, while this might not be a problem should the recyclables be separated at a later stage. This does, however, lead to more effort on another person’s hands that will later go through and separate the recyclables.

A previous initiative sought out a solution throughout the school by introducing the multi-coloured bin lids. While it exists, there is no real reason to use them other a person’s care for the environment, and as a result they are not as effective as they could be.

Introducing an incentive/competition to spark peoples’ interests and will have a positive effect towards recycling.

Something like:

·       Organise grades/dorms into groups. (Where bins are located in rooms)

·       Assign these bins a colour to prevent anyone exploiting the system.

·       Over a time period (2 weeks) recycling will be counted and measured but not shown.

·       At the end of the period, scores/amounts will be revealed and the winning group will be able to do something fun, from a set list, during a Prep session.

This will incentivise recycling and prey/feed on Bishops boys’ ingrained nature of loving competition.  

The recyclables can then be recycled. Organic waste can be turned into compost to use around the Founder’s garden and the school. This will take pressure off Cape Town’s dumpsites which are filling up quickly. Things like garden waste, vegetable and fruit peelings and paper can all rot easily and make good compost.  (Worst off group will have to maintain the compost for that time period)

The other materials that can recycled can be sent off in one go to a nearby recycling centre. All the recycling from the campus can be sent together to minimise petrol use and carbon emissions from the transport.