Precious Pipis Childcare leads the way in sustainable practice

A childcare centre in rural New Zealand is leading the way in the country by reducing the amount of waste it produces each day, and in finding innovative ways to engage in sustainable practices.

The work undertaken by the Precious Pipis centre will be of interest to those working in the Australian early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector as services seek to fulfil the sustainability requirements of the National Quality Framework.

New Zealand newsource stuff.co.nz reported on the sustainability measures implemented by Precious Pipis, which began with the centre choosing to no longer use disposable nappies, switching to cloth. This, Stuff reported, was the start of a path of sustainable thinking, which lead to educators and leaders in the centre exploring other sustainability choices.

The centre uses flannels instead of paper towels, feeds food scraps to animals located in the service, and asks enrolled families to bring in their soft plastics which are then used to create eco bricks which are used for building materials. The children have also worked with educators to plant vegetables which are used in cooking at the centre.

Glitter and plastic materials are no longer available for arts and crafts in a bid to further reduce the environmental impact of the centre.

More than 1,100 schools and early learning centres in New Zealand have committed to making sustainability a priority in their programs through participating in the Enviroschools programme, which works with the New Zealand Curriculum to teach children about sustainability.

To read the original coverage of this story as provided by Stuff, see here.