Dumped tank gets second life as schoolchildren learn about sustainability

George Heagney14:42, Aug 27 2022

Kopane School students look through bags of plastic off-cuts that are waiting to go through the chipping process.

A long lesson in sustainability has reached the end after children from a Manawatū school were able to a see a useless old water tank that was dumped at school given a second life

A 20,000 water tank, which had been damaged and had a huge split in it, was dumped on the field at Kopane School early one morning in March.

The tank was chopped up and taken away by Malcolm Brown and Mark Jones from Gyro Plastics in Feilding. It was taken to Auckland and ground into a fine powder and brought back to Gyro Plastics to be turned into plastic bins, which were donated to the school to be used to store sports gear.

This week children from Kopane School were given a tour of Gyro Plastics and shown what the company does with plastics. Much of Gyro’s work is moulding plastic power boxes.

Abigail Jermey, left, and Breccan Pugh get their hands into the ground powder that once was the water tank.

Kopane principal Matt Costley said: “They're completing the circle of that sustainability journey for the tank.

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“Something that started off as a senseless dumb thing is going to have a purpose made of it.”

He said one of the school’s values was sustainability and this was a good way for the children to see how something was taken away and given a new life.

Brown said pieces of the tank were brought back to the factory to be cleaned and cut into smaller parts.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF

Gyro production manager Mark Jones answers children’s questions about regrinding and recycling plastic.

They sent it to Auckland for it to be ground into powder, then it was brought back to Feilding in 15 25-kilogram bags.

Brown said they wanted to help teach the children about sustainability.

Kopane pupil Charlie Hampson-Hirst, 12, said he thought the tank had just been rubbish when it turned up at school, but it was cool to see what it could be used for now.

He said they had learnt about being sustainable and responsible.

The saga started after Costley shared a photo of the tank on the school’s Facebook page.

Sally Spencer, the managing director of Vision Plastics New Zealand in Auckland, was sent the social media post so she went to work organising a solution and contacted Gyro.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF

The tank when it was left at Kopane School in March.