Aside from educating and preparing students with disabilities for post-school life, Aspley Special School also promotes sustainability through community recycling and composting.
Kingfisher Recycling Centre
Aspley Special School’s community recycling and composting hub and garden first started can recycling in 1983 as a work experience option. Since then, it has become one of the largest school-based recycling programs with tonnes of recyclables processed through the years.
Students engage in e-waste processing, can crushing, glass sorting, cardboard packing, lid removal, stamp recovery, tree planting and mulching as part of their recycling skills training. The skills training help students develop and practice employment-related skills including the ability to display good work ethics, follow quality control and work safety practices, and staying on task.
Kingfisher Recycling Centre, located at 31 Dorville Road in Aspley, accepts donations of recyclables: aluminium cans and steel; stamps and envelopes; glass bottles and jars; computers, laptops, TVs; whitegoods, hot water systems; cardboard boxes and packing materials; car batteries; magazines, books, and newspapers.
Kingfisher Community Garden
Aspley Special School also has a community composting hub where locals are encouraged to drop off their food scraps to be turned into compost for the community garden. The Kingfisher Community Garden is located at 751 Zillmere Road and features raised garden beds, shed filled with tools, compost bays, and concrete pathways throughout the garden.
What started as a way to bring families and friends of the school together to enjoy gardening, the Kingfisher Community Garden now welcomes more volunteers, even those without gardening experience, and groups associated with the school to join the activities.
The community garden is open before and after school hours during term times, on weekends, and all day during school holidays with working bees and workshops held every second Saturday from 10am until noon.
