A Tauranga school's three-year plan to slash waste in the school and wider community has helped it secure one of dozen secondary schools sharing a $48,000, eco-friendly prize pool.

Otumoetai College is one of the winning schools, located from Northland to Canterbury that today learned they will receive a set of purpose-built, stainless steel recycling bins designed to hold beverage containers.

EERST program manager Hope Lawsen and administrator Satsuki Takeuouchi helping secondary schools improve recycling rates. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

The contest was created by Tauranga-based environmental education trust EERST.

'We designed this contest because we needed to do something about the frightening number of aluminium cans and glass and plastic bottles that are tossed in school waste bins every year,” says EERST chairman Marty Hoffart.

'We deal with thousands of schools around New Zealand and most are now doing a great job with paper and cardboard but far too many beverage containers are being thrown into waste skips when they should be recycled.

'These bins will help the winning schools put a stop to that.”

He says the problem is particularly prevalent in high schools, where students have more cash to spend on drinks and greater access to on site canteens or corner stores.

'Increasing recycling rates in our high schools is part of a much bigger picture. Before long, these students are going to be out there in the community and we all need them to be smart about minimising waste and reusing resources.”

Marty says bin contest winners had to prove they were already showing initiative to reduce waste, that they genuinely needed the bins and were committed to using them.

'There were some very impressive entries. One school conducted a survey to prove their students were throwing away about 300 cans and bottles each week. Others sent us photos of their existing bins, which are totally inadequate.”

He says Otumoetai College won a set of bins because of the school's proven commitment to waste minimisation, which includes daily recycling and a three-year plan to slash waste in the school and wider community.

'We're thrilled to be able to award one of the prizes to a local school but there was no favouritism – they won because they're doing a fantastic job and their application reflected this.

”EERST delivers the successful Paper4trees recycling programme to more than 4000 New Zealand schools, offering trees as a reward for recycling paper and cardboard.

The beverage containers will be paid for by the annual Keep New Zealand Beautiful Beverage Container Recycling Community Grants programme, funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation.