La Salle Catholic College Bankstown, leading the way.
Selling the message of care for one’s school environment at La Salle Catholic College is a service
and a passion for Kristen Roehrig, a teacher in the 1,100-strong multicultural school in Bankstown,
a suburb of Sydney. Her spirit and drive have produced a program that raises funds for La Salle
High School Campus 2, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Kristen had a long and happy association with Lasallian education through 19 previous years
teaching at Casimir Catholic College Marrickville. At Casimir College, she initiated students to
advocate the NSW government to start the ‘Return and Earn’ recycling program via petitions and
activity at the Cook’s River festival.
A strong supporter of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical ‘On Care for Our Common Home’, she
enthusiastically became a member of the ‘Laudato Si’ group set up by Br Phillip Elwin from which
her current program grew. From a prototype created at DLS Caringbah, the concept took shape into a
recycling project at La Salle Bankstown.
Coming as a new teacher at La Salle, she had noticed there were so many empty cans and bottles
littering the grounds, that it was “turning me crazy”. Together with Stephen Mulligan, the College
maintenance assistant, Kristen designed a secure and workable recycling receptacle. Each ‘cage’ has
wheels, a metal tray base, and a suitable plastic opening for insertion at the top and was funded
by the College. Kristen pointed out that it was not purely about cost and income as “the Catholic
context is bigger than that”. It works on publicizing a clean environment, and care for creation.
Kristen notes that the program has made slow progress, from Kristen picking up plenty of cans in
the yards, to the Laudato Si group of four, to its present success. Promotion has involved images
on the schoolyard TV screen, with student assemblies in PowerPoint presentation, and Kristen
visiting classes to sell the message. The students’ awareness and knowledge has been built by
incorporating the cage recycling as an example of creation-care in a junior school assessment task
on ‘Laudato Si’.
Where do the cans and tetra boxes go for the recycling? La Salle Catholic College recently recycled
3,341 cans and bottles, with the funds received being donated to the Lasallian Foundation for use
in its projects supporting schools and students in Pakistan and Papua New Guinea. Kristen is keen
for other Lasallian schools to adopt the can recycling scheme to support the Lasallian Foundation,
and interested schools can contact her at
kristen.roehrig@syd.catholic.edu.au for further information and advice.
