If we want to change behaviour we need to put the resourcing in place.

Changing knowledge, attitudes, and practices takes grit, time, resources and and a lot of energy.  Students deserve this education but adults to do and they are not receiving it. 

In my school, as an example, we have bins for recycling & waste, in numerous places on numerous floors.  The signage associated with these bins is incorrect.  The only bin for compostable waste is on the ground floor.  Waste in all bins ends up being mixed.  I am not sure if anything gets recycled.  To address this, one solution would mean correcting the signage, adding additional bins for composting, an educational campaign and re-launch across the school, regular audits multiple times a week across the year, and the results regularly communicated.  This is a phenomenal amount of work and no teacher will take this on as they have enough on their plate with other extra-curricular activities etc.  When adults or students are asked what can we do? The main answer we get back is recycle and we still don't get that right.  Other teachers in other schools in the Irish Schools Sustainability Network report back the same thing.  We should be talking about not generating the waste in the first place as well as a host of other things.

Solutions I would suggest are:

Employ a sustainability officer in each school who builds confidence among staff and students.  Their remit should include: buildings, outdoors, curriculum, procurement, waste management, catering etc.  They would be coordinating the work in school.  This is a mammoth job and it needs resourcing.  In time hopefully the role would be dissolved as sustainability will be everyone's job!  If I was personally offered such a position for a few days a week I wouldn't dream of taking it as it would give me sleepless nights.  It's a big job and we have a long road to travel. Schools vary in science in places you could have roaming sustainability officers who are attached to X number of schools and work in each school for a day or two a week.

Run courses for adults in schools and communities to help them to connect with and understand all sustainability issues.