School of just 30 students collect 76,000 containers to be named as WA’s School of the Year

Borden Primary School has been named WA’s School of the Year at the inaugural Change Maker Awards for their “outstanding level of participation” to Containers for Change.

The awards recognised community groups and schools who had paved the way for WA to save 765 million containers since the program started this time last year.

Representatives from the Borden PS Containers for Change program attended the awards ceremony at Crown Perth last weekend.

The school of just 30 students were all recognised for their effort of collecting more than 76,000 containers, raising $7600 dollars for school upgrades.

Borden PS defeated finalists Albany Secondary Education Support Centre, Mukinbudin District High School P&C and Newton Moore Senior High School.

Principal Shenae Bowen said she wanted to thank local businesses for their generosity in helping collect containers.

She made special mention of Michael Pemberton who drove his truck to Borden each month to collect the containers free of charge before dropping them at Paul Lionetti’s Containers for Cash refund point in Albany.

“We were very shocked and surprised to have won, but are so proud especially when there are hundreds of schools in WA who are part of Containers for Change,” Ms Bowen said.

“We were already feeling very humble and honoured that our little school in Borden had been recognised for their fundraising efforts.

“We certainly never started this with the expectation to win anything — it was all about fundraising for our small school while caring for our environment at the same time.”

WA Environment Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said West Aussies had embraced the scheme to return hundreds of millions of 10c containers in the first year of operation.