From Landfill to Learning Lab: How Woodridge State High School Joined the Circular Economy

Watch the video above to see what's possible when industry and education stop talking past each other and start building something real.

There's a principle in LEAN thinking that separates the organisations that transform from the ones that tinker: start with the end in mind.

Not the end of the project. The end of the waste. The end of the skills gap. The end of young people leaving school with no connection to the industries that need them most.

That's exactly where Climate Action Schools started when we partnered with Woodridge State High School.

We built the whole thing first

Most pilots test a concept. We tested a complete system.

Working with WSHS and their Year 9 and 10 NSS class, we ran the full Climate Action Schools program — from establishing the Sustainability Skills Centre, to embedding circular economy operations, to connecting students to industry through site visits at Cummins, Oxworks, and Evolve Group.

We wanted to know: does the whole system work? Not just the waste sorting. Not just the student engagement. The whole thing — operations, curriculum connection, industry pathways, community income — running together, in a real school, with real students, real cleaners, and real constraints.

The answer is in the video.

76% of student resources diverted from landfill. $27,000 saved on waste costs in one year. $6,000 in circular economy income back to the P&C and Scouts. 33.3 metric tonnes kept out of landfill. A system still running today — maintained by the school itself.

The same system the world's best use

Here's what makes this different from every other school sustainability programme you've seen.

We didn't invent a new methodology for schools. We took the world-class operational system already proven inside Cummins, Komatsu, Suncorp, Woolworths and hundreds of other high-performing organisations — and we made it work in a school context.

5S. Take 5. The 8 Wastes. 5 Whys. Fishbone analysis.

These aren't classroom concepts. They're the tools that run some of the most efficient operations on the planet. And now they're running in a state high school in Logan.

When a student from WSHS walks into a workshop, a warehouse, or a logistics operation for the first time, they won't be starting from zero. They'll recognise the system. They'll know the language. They'll already understand what waste costs a business — and what eliminating it is worth.

That's not a soft skill. That's a competitive advantage for every employer who hires them.

What we learned — and what we've refined

Running the full program taught us exactly where the friction lives.

Schools are not businesses. The savings don't stay with the school. Cleaners operate under job descriptions that weren't written with sustainability in mind. Teachers and operations staff work in separate silos that rarely talk to each other. And asking a school to adopt LEAN terminology on day one is a fast way to get shown the door.

So we adapted. We refined. We applied the same continuous improvement discipline to our own program that we teach inside it.

What remains is a trialled, tested, and streamlined system — built specifically for what schools actually need, stripped of everything that doesn't serve them, and sequenced in the order that creates lasting results.

Introducing Divert and Earn

The first phase is simple. Deliberately so.

Divert and Earn gets the school's operational system up and running. Waste streams sorted. Circular economy partners connected. Income flowing back to the school community. The Sustainability Skills Centre established and maintained.

No curriculum overhaul required. No whole-school transformation asked for upfront. Just a clean, functional circular economy operation — proven, documented, and self-sustaining.

Get the operations right first. Everything else builds on that foundation.

Then comes Divert, Earn and Learn

Once the system is running, teachers can connect their curriculum areas to a live operational environment right inside the school.

STEM. VET. Business. Environmental Science. The SSC becomes a living classroom — not a simulation, not a case study, but a real circular economy hub generating real data, real income, and real outcomes.

Students don't study sustainability. They do it.

And then the industry walks in

When the school is operational and the curriculum is connected, the third layer activates: industry partnerships for student pathways.

Circular economy partners are attached first — joining the school's resource recovery network and demonstrating what the circular economy looks like at scale. Then industry partners come in for student site visits, mentoring, and direct pathways into apprenticeships and employment.

Cummins has already integrated CAS graduates into their apprenticeship shortlisting. The pathway from school bin to industry career is no longer theoretical. It exists. It's documented. And it's open to every school that joins the program.

Why this matters right now

The average age of an apprentice in Australia has risen from 16 to 24.

That's not a statistic. That's eight years of potential — eight years of young people who could have been building skills, earning wages, and contributing to an industry that desperately needs them — going somewhere else instead.

The industry has spent years asking where the talent went. Climate Action Schools is part of the answer.

Not by telling young people the industry is great. By showing them — through real work, real tools, and real outcomes — that it's worth joining.

The Logan pilot proved it works

WSHS is still diverting. Still earning. Still running the system — without us in the building every day.

That's the proof of concept. That's what a sustainable program looks like.

Now we're ready to scale.

If you're a school, a business manager, or an industry partner ready to bring Divert and Earn to your community — we'd love to hear from you.

[Contact Climate Action Schools] | [Learn about partnership opportunities]

Climate Action Schools is proudly supported by Cummins as founding ESG partner, and recognised as Highly Commended — Environmental Innovation of the Year by the Waste Recycling Industry of Queensland.