Driving sustainability: school’s golf ball recycling innovation could be game-changer

Sadly, not every golfer can hit a ball as skilfully as Tiger Woods, and so many are lost and in the process become a major environmental hazard. Stats show that more than 350 million golf balls are sent to landfill each year.

Unlike many companies which resell golf balls, only for them to end up in landfill, Golf Ball Recycling collaborates with local councils and companies to transform them into innovative applications.

The company approached the school’s principal, Campbell McKay, after a staff member at Golf Ball Recycling, having regularly walked his dog around the school grounds, noticed an overflow of leaves and debris from the congested stormwater grates on the school grounds.

What was proposed was a stormwater filtration solution, with elements crafted entirely from recycled golf balls.

The resultant stormwater pit lid he believed could effectively prevent litter from polluting waterways, allowing only water and liquids to pass through.

Mt Waverley Primary’s Ramya Deepak, says a trial undertaken so far has been a resounding success.

Until now, leaves have constantly clogged drains, and so underneath each grate the groundman has installed mesh material, which he has to check every week during autumn – and which involves lifting each drain cover, clearing all the leaves from the mesh, and then replacing the drain cover so that water flow is not affected.

Deepak says the recycled golf ball alternative, which they have trialled on one particularly leaf-inundated drain, has received the double thumbs up on several fronts.

Assistant principal Ramya Deepak says Mount Waverley’s whole-school sustainability approach brings a great deal of confidence on the part of students, “because they feel really great that they are leading this in some way, that they are responsible for this”.

“The recycled material just sits on top, it’s still permeable, so water can still flow through it, but the leaves stay on top, which means [groundsman] Pete can simply use a blower, as he does with the rest of the grounds, to remove the leaves,” the assistant principal tells EducationHQ.

“So the saving in terms of time and labour is massive. It’s cut down to practically nothing now.

“Pete is so happy. Like, rolled out across the entire school, that would change his life!”

During the June school holidays, representatives from Golf Ball Recycling came in to the school and took measurements of all the drain covers, and the company is now working on how that will look – the colours of the lids, how much aggregate will be required and so on.

Simon Lord, senior project manager at Golf Ball Recycling, says the trial has huge significance.

“The simple yet powerful switch to our recycled golf ball stormwater lid marks a significant step towards a more sustainable future, and we hope this project inspires other schools and communities to explore similar eco-friendly solutions,” he says.

With Melbourne’s tendency to flash flood every time there’s so much as a hint of rain, the list of applications are mind-boggling.

The school is now investigating how the recycled golf balls could potentially solve another issue in the front of the school, where drop-off and pick-up have decimated the nature strip.

“Council have told us it has to be some kind of permeable material, to allow the drainage of water, and to fit within specifications, so we thought, ‘maybe this material will help?’

“The advantage of the golf ball material, is that not only is it soft and hard, but it can be painted, or it can be shaped however you want it, and so we’ve felt that it may pass the council specifications and we can make it look nice and tidy on the nature strip. It’s something we’re looking into," Deepak says. 

This kind of forward-thinking is nothing new for Mount Waverley Primary. The school enjoys 5-Star Resource Smart School status and was awarded Sustainability Victoria’s Resource Smart School of the Year in 2020.

It has well-earned nationwide reputation for excellence in sustainability and recycling, and regularly hosts other school groups keen to learn more about its long-term planet-friendly resourcefulness.

Principal Campbell McKay says the benefits of the recycled drainage pits are aesthetic as well as safety-conscious. The pits can be coloured and blend in with any decal or surface colour, and the the pit surface is not as harsh, should a child fall on them. 

Deepak says the school has had a sustainability focus for the last six to seven years, which really grew when it was decided that for three years sustainability would be offered as a specialist subject, much like PE or music or art.

“We introduced this because we wanted the students and staff to understand that it’s a whole school approach, and everyone is responsible to build a sustainable learning community,” Deepak says.

“So once a week, students were able to have a specific lesson dedicated to sustainability, and according to their age, based on foundation to Year 6.”

As a result, from 2018 onwards, the school has been able to introduce and mostly student-manage a comprehensive waste management system at the school.

Every classroom and office area has four separate bins – a normal rubbish bin, a green bin for food scraps, a recycle bin, for yogurt cups, juice cans and a paper and cardboard bin.

Each year level from Years 3-6 is responsible for a different bin collection, whilst the Year 1s and 2s are busy with important water conservation of their own.

“So we've found that our drink taps never close completely – they always drip – so the Year 1s and 2s decided that at the start of the day, they would put little buckets underneath every drink tap, and then just before lunch they come pick up the little buckets and water our plants with their collected water.”

Deepak says the learnings from such a young age are important.

“Getting the kids to learn these things and take responsibility for what we’re doing is critical. Every little thing impacts our planet, and we only have one planet on which we can live.

“But it is also about the fact that at the very basic core of sustainable skills is respect.

"They are learning respect for our environment, respect for the property around us, respect for everyone around us. It’s teaching respect and that becomes ingrained – we need to be respectful about the things we use, we need to be respectful about water and so on.

“And combined with our global education program, we are just teaching kids that there are people in the world that do not have these basic things, so we’re building that empathy and that understanding and that perspective as well.”

Deepak says the whole-school approach brings a great deal of confidence on the part of students, “because they feel really great that they are leading this in some way, that they are responsible for this”.

“Our kids are amazing. We have two sustainability captains in Year 6, and we often get requests from other schools for tours.

“So when other schools come for school visits or tours, our sustainability captains lead the school tour, and they are very proud of showing all of our sustainable practices, including the bins, the worm farms, the chickens, we have our veggie gardens – all of that...”