It might have a basic timber frame and earthen floor, but walls made of recycled bottles have earned Richardson Primary School's new greenhouse the grand nickname 'The Plastic Palace'.
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Students and parents at the southside school amassed 2000 plastic bottles in 18 months to help create the structure, which will be used to educate children about environmental sustainability, health and nutrition.
Education Minister Joy Burch officially opened the greenhouse on Wednesday and said it would act as an extension of the school's vegetable garden and provide important cover in winter.
"This really is a fantastic initiative and a great example of the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' mantra," Ms Burch said.
"I applaud the innovation of the Richardson Primary students, their teachers and the wider school community in finding a new way to bring education and the environment together with this great project."
The greenhouse was made possible due to a $2000 grant from Teachers Mutual Bank's teachers environment fund, which went towards the timber frame, equipment and seedlings.
Principal Jason Borton said the greenhouse would provide students with "a lot of real life, purposeful learning opportunities".
"As well as the environmental knowledge, there was a lot of calculation, measurement and counting involved in the design and building of the greenhouse.
"The science of growing and nurturing seedlings and plants plays a big role too."
Teacher Kate Davis first had the idea for the structure in 2012 and encouraged children to start stocking up on bottles.
"Even the parts of the soft drink bottles that we didn't use for the greenhouse were recycled for other projects, such as flower pots.
"Nothing went to waste."
Ms Burch hoped the students' efforts would help educate the wider community about environmental matters.
"Every time we recycle, every time we reuse something that we would have otherwise been thrown out, we help the environment. If every one of us makes that effort, we can as a community make a difference," Ms Burch said.
"The children of Richardson Primary, through this bottle greenhouse project, have shown our community the sorts of changes that can be made if we work together to help the environment."
