Green performing-arts school shows how to turn rubbish into pupils’ desks
Greening is an art at Chistlehurst School in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The private performing-arts high school – the only one of its sort in Pietermaritzburg and the Midlands – operates off the grid using water tanks‚ batteries‚ solar energy and a small generator. It also has a frog pond‚ a fish pond‚ a permaculture garden and a recycling village. And at the end of last year‚ the school bartered its recycling waste for 30 "green" desks‚ made of previously unrecyclable plastic. The school’s Grade 8 maths pupils had the privilege of using the "rubbish" desks on Monday when school the 2017 academic year began. Jacyn Fanner‚ director of the small high school‚ which accommodates up to 80 pupils with classes of no more than 16, said that when the school started in 2004 it struggled to get the water and lights connected and decided to "make a plan". "Later, we came to the decision that it was perfectly feasible to operate this way so we never went onto the grid. It also fits our eth...
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