Food Carton Interhouse
Introduction:
During the past week, WANBO has been organising our yearly tradition of the food carton recycling Interhouse event. Students over the past week have been working hard in contributing to their own houses and bringing in clean food cartons to be recycled.
Background Information:
Food and beverage cartons – These will be collected and sent to Mil Mill, the first pulp mill and education centre that recycles these beverage cartons in Hong Kong, which will then be converted into paper pulp and turned into toilet paper, which we will then use at school.
Why do we do this? These packaging items that hold food and drinks like milk, juice, soup and chopped tomatoes, are made of a complex structure that helps provide these items with an extended shelf life. These cartons are made up of multiple layers: Paperboard, a type of wood, Polyethene, a form of plastic and Aluminium. As such, this has made them very challenging to recycle.
Picture for reference:
(Packaging Material for Tetra Pak Carton Packages, 2021)
Details of the Interhouse:
So rather than throwing these types of waste away at home, please make sure to wash and clean them before being brought into school to be recycled, as they will not be counted otherwise. Please refer here to see how to clean and prepare your cartons made by one of our WANBO members – cartons instructions. Once they are properly cleaned, students can then put the white and silver carton’s into the correctly designated bins which can be found in your own respective house office.
Here are what some students had to say about the interhouse:
Chloe Wong from 10D, a member of WANBO said “I didn’t even know that TetraPaks could be recycled before this interhouse event. I’m glad that WANBO is actively campaigning for sustainable Island School life through educating the student body and introducing fun initiatives!”
Another member of WANBO Nicholas Tsang from 10E said “This is a very meaningful thing for Wanbo to do, as they are spreading awareness to problems that many people may not know very well of, and I am impressed by the effectiveness of this operation. Moreover, since Mil Mil is going to close down soon, it may be a good idea for everyone to donate some cartons.”
Finally we also got a new member of WANBO who said “Recycling food cartons is a very simple but effective way to protect our environment! Also, as Mil Mil will soon be closing down, more food carton donations will enable Mil Mil to have a greater environmental impact before it closes.”
Here are some more detail on how to clean your food carton:
Conclusion & Promotions:
Each house will earn points based on how many food cartons have been received as a house as a whole. This inter house will be running until the 24th of March so get recycling with your food cartons & may the best house win!!
If you have any questions in regards to WANBO, feel free to email our Heads and Deputy
Heads: Clement Kwan [12R] ~ clement.kwan@online.island.edu.hk & Hannah Wu [12D] ~ hannah.wu@online.island.edu.hk
Deputy Heads: Zoe Tan [10E] ~ zoe.tan@online.island.edu.hk & Megan Chan [10D] ~ megan_yh.chan@online.island.edu.hk
For more regular updates and announcements on the project, as well as opportunities for students to get involved in WANBO’s initiatives, please follow their Instagram page @iswanbo.
Bibliography:
- Packaging material for Tetra Pak carton packages. (2021). Tetrapak.com. https://www.tetrapak.com/solutions/packaging/packaging-material/materials
