Students at St Joseph's Primary School are collecting all their used toothbrushes in the hopes of winning a nationwide competition to recycle the most oral care waste.
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To help them win a recycled garden set, they're asking their community to hand over their old toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss containers and vote online for their school.
St Joseph's Primary School are currently positioned in the top 50 out of more than 1000 schools competing to win a community garden set.
Run by Colgate, Chemist Warehouse and global recycling pioneers TerraCycle, The Colgate Community Garden Challenge invites all pre, primary, intermediate, special and secondary schools in Australia to register, collect and ship all their oral care waste to TerraCycle who will turn it into new products.
The competition encourages schools to learn about sustainability by seeing how waste that would normally be sent to landfill can be given a second life and made into a new product such as a garden bed.
A total of five schools will win one of the sets which contain three garden beds, two custom-made benches and three customised garden plaques made with recycled oral care waste, plus a $500 Bunnings voucher.
The three schools who collect the most waste and earn the most votes online will win one, along with two randomly drawn winners.
St Joseph's Primary School teacher Michelle Tarrant described the recycling challenge as a great way to incorporate messages surrounding the important of waste management into the school's curriculum as well as throughout the community.
"We are always looking for opportunities to teach our children and the community about sustainability," Ms Tarrant said.
Ms Tarrant says the competition has inspired the school to join TerraCycle and become a public drop off point for the Kempsey community.
"We signed up to TerraCycle and are now a collection point for oral care products and mailing sachets. We intend to use the profits from the challenge to purchase more TerraCycle Zero Waste Boxes," she said.
West Kempsey residents are encouraged to drop their used oral care products off and vote for the school online at www.terracycle.com.au/colgategardenvoting.
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