To go with "Earth Day" which was celebrated world-wide on April 22nd, we continue to work with dedication to improve Newton's environmental awareness and education. 
On April 16th, the new re-cycling and waste management center in the B-level of Hui Xin campus opened together with a revised, more efficient and easily measurable daily standard of how to manage both recyclables, organic and hazardous waste at school.

 All food waste must be returned to the kitchen cleaning room to be sorted into cooked and uncooked bins for composting/disposal and measured by volume to keep a record of how, as a business, we can minimize food waste.

 Further, all non-organic recyclable materials will be divided into 1) paper 2) plastic 3) metal 4) glass 5) re-useable for art projects and hazardous by 6) sharp objects 7) batteries 8) light-bulbs and 9) toxic residue e.g. paint containers.
From an educational perspective this dedicated re-cycling and waste management center fits nicely into the in-class waste sorting stations and on-site composting, but it further allows the campus to sort waste, as not just an educational point, but at a much grander environmentally sustainable scale.

On April 20th, Newton's K2 teacher Ms. Celia presented together with Ms. Mandy and "Biolan organic gardening" about the dangers and solutions to the growing environment problem that is "plastic". Many parents and grandparents joined the presentation and together we wish to start a trend, saying "no to plastic", "yes to earth" and encourage everyone to begin making good choices when buying products at the super-market as well. 
We were surprised to learn that most plastic that claim to be recycled or recyclable actually isn't, because the cost of recycling is much higher than producing new plastic. Ms. Celia showed us a video of an ocean full of plastic bags, fish mistakenly eating the plastic bags that looks like jelly-fish and ending up on people's dinner plates, full of dangerous toxics. 
A study shows that 80% of all water, even bottled water contains plastic contaminants. Plastic has only really been in mass-production since the 1950's and we (humans) have already managed to cover vast areas, destroy oceans and pollute our water. Something needs to be done, it starts with us and how we wish the Earth to be for our children and their children's future. Stop buying plastic products when there are other alternatives e.g. ear buds, straws for drinking, chopsticks, cups, plates and choose condiments in glass jars instead of plastic e.g. ketchup, curry paste etc. 
In an effort to showcase environmentally friendly alternatives, Hui Xin campus management have promoted alternatives to plastic and have sent home free organic bamboo toothbrush to all Hui Xin students courtesy of one of the campus' families who has made it their business to care about organic and environmentally sustainable alternatives to common plastic products, such as the toothbrush www.brushwithbamboo.com.

Every year, more than 4.7 billion plastic toothbrushes that will never biodegrade are dumped in landfills and oceans worldwide. If something so small, can amount to such a huge, harmful impact on earth it is time to pay attention.
From the bottom of our heart we wish to encourage all parents, who either by personal or professional choice work to make their life or business an environmentally friendly one to write Newton group representative and Hui Xin campus principal Mr. Anders S Christensen on anders@internewton.com to see if we can work together to inspire our children and community!
We wish everyone a wonderful Labor holiday. Hopefully the weather will be nice and allow everyone to travel outside, enjoy a picnic under the green trees, appreciate nature and in doing so, remember not to support the use of plastic!

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