Actonville school trumps 53 others in recycling contest

Emaromeni Primary School in Actonville beats 53 schools in Gauteng to win the NutriDay Tubs2Classrooms project.

The school collected a total of 4 000 yoghurt tubs. This was an average of 16 tubs per learner, the most per child in the project.

“It is our honour to recognise Emaromeni Primary’s passion for protecting the environment, a cause that Danone values and implements as part of our business goals.

“This is a very special school. Although with only 260 learners, it’s an impactful school,” said Donone Southern Africa’s head of corporate affairs, Leanne Kiezer.

The school’s champion teacher, Olga Leope stated their learners learnt that despite their small number, with unity and hard work, they came out on top.

“We are excited. I didn’t think we would win because we are a small school.

“I would see on collection days that other schools had filled three dustbins while we only had one. I didn’t know they calculated by ratio, which is why we won,” Leope said.

Initially called One Desk One Child, Danone started this project in 2021 to encourage schools to collect yoghurt tubs which were then converted into desks for children who needed a safe space for learning.

In 2022, the project was renamed Tubs2Classrooms where NutriDay, in partnership with Pick ‘n Pay and

Interwaste, set out to educate 80 primary schools nationally about the importance and value of responsible plastic recycling.

“Learners were encouraged to clean and bring their used yoghurt tubs to school, which will be converted into light-weight bricks to build learning centres for schools in need,” Kiezer said.

Kiezer explained they started this project because Donone has a responsibility to ensure their tubs don’t pollute the environment.

“We developed this project to be a second-life solution for the tubs. It’s in line with Danone’s One Planet One Health vision where we believe the food we eat and the world we live in are interconnected and to have healthy food, we must have a healthy planet,” she said.

Across the 80 schools that took part in the project, Danone collected 300 000 tubs. According to Kiezer, that’s enough for bricks to build one learning centre.

“We won’t stop here. We believe in educating these children because we know they will influence people around them to become recyclers.”

Grade Seven learner Anele Vilakazi pleaded with the community to join them in keeping the environment clean.

“It will be helpful if the community becomes a part of this project because their contribution will not only go towards helping the school but also keeping the environment clean,” she said.

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