Malta

Students at Vittoriosa Primary School will be taking aim at systematically seeking to educate the community to properly dispose off and eliminate cigarette butts. Cigarette butts are believed to be the most pervasive form of plastic pollution on the planet with trillions are discarded every year. Students at Vittoriosa Primary School will be taking on the role of activists to educate the community against discarding cigarette butts irresponsibly for they negatively impact and contaminate the world’s oceans.

Students will organise a clean up by the sea and analyse a sample study by calculating the amount of cigarette butts collected. With the results in hands, students will then organise a meeting with the local council to discuss their results and their ideas of what they intend to do to put forward this issue. Students will discuss their idea of having a protest walk with slogans written by the students themselves with the help of the teachers and LSEs and persuade the local council to set up cigarette bins in all parts of the city, a suggestion which must be initiated urgently in Vittoriosa. Portable ashtrays will also be discussed.

A video will also be taken during the protest walk and members of EkoSkola will also be discussing with residents what happens when cigarette butts are dumped directly on to beaches. In this case, cigarette butts are washed into the oceans and disintegrated into microplastics easily consumed by marine life. The general community will be reached by posting on social media, through the school's facebook group as well as by writing on digital newspapers and newspapers and advertising the action. The cigarette butt scheme will drastically lessen the increasing number of cigarette butts on the streets and on the beaches. By this educational campaign, students will ensure that people start to realise that cigarette butt waste damages habitat, landscapes and ecosystems and lasts forever!

New Zealand

Kerikeri High School held a number of Community Action events over a number of days which coincided with Keep New Zealand Beautiful Week. Students were involved in a poster competition to design new recycling bins for the school, prizes were given for a school-wide quiz about waste. Students also held stalls throughout the school to educate others about the importance of separating recycling items. 

A local waste management company got involved and offered free recycling and rubbish bags for groups of students to conduct a clean up of the local surroundings, including a nearby beach. The rubbish that was collected was then audited by students who will be presenting their results to the whole school in the coming weeks. 

A turtle sculpture was also made from recycled plastic bottles and beeswax wrap workshops were held for interested participants.

Northern Ireland

New Environmental Policies - A Youth Strategy for the Environment

Forty young activists, including some Young Reporters for the Environment from St Dominic’s Grammar School for Girls and Ulidia Integrated College,  met with policy makers at Stormont on 17th January to set out their demands for safeguarding the environment, as they play their part in shaping Northern Ireland’s first ever environment strategy, which is currently out for public consultation. Students gave suggestions about what they think should be included in the strategy by working in groups to answer questions on this topic.

Supported by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful, Ulster Wildlife and the Belfast Hills Partnership, the passionate and environmentally conscious young people, aged 11 to 24, have already been taking action to improve hundreds of local green spaces and tackle environmental issues, such as climate change. Some of these improvements have been possible through litter pick events and Community Action Days supported by Mars Wrigley Foundation.

A representative of these young activists advocated to act now on the climate crisis, because catastrophes, like the fires in Australia, will become more common place across the world, changing ecosystems beyond repair. They also commented about the need to improve the recycling facilities in Northern Ireland, so we can stop wasting money, energy, and resources by making things from scratch. It is possible: Sweden recycle 99 percent of their waste, so why can't we? Young people have great ideas too; they just need to be listened to more!

The youth-led movement is calling for three key asks to be included in the forthcoming strategy: more time for young people learning in and about nature, more support for young people to get environmental jobs, and more opportunities for young people to be heard and play an active role in society. It’s time to speak up!

Wales

Lewis School Pengam took part in a YRE introduction session for teachers and students and then a community litter pick along a local river walkway.. The students were very enthusiastic and the highlight was finding a Pepsi Cola can from the 1980's. Much fun was had guessing how old it could be and it was a fantastic demonstration of how long it takes for drink cans to biodegrade in the environment. The story  of the ancient can was picked up by the local press 'The Caerphilly Observer'.

China

On September 20, 2019, the sun was shining and the Osmanthus flower was fragrant. 24 environmental volunteers from Hakka primary school in Longquanyi district of Chengdu visited Chengdu Xingrong Wanxing environmental protection power plant under the guidance of 4 teachers. The students watched a power plant information video, understood the function and operation principle of environmental protection power plant. The students listened to the lecture and made notes carefully. The students visited the factory and learned about the process of converting waste into useful electricity and other energy. They also enthusiastically participated in an interactive garbage classification game. The visit and learning activity ended with the laughter and reluctance of the students. The experiential activity is the motivation for them to do a good job in garbage classification, turning waste into treasure and practicing environmental protection activities.

India

The National Institute of Mass Communication and Journalism in association with Centre for Environment Education organised a debate on "Is Mainstream National Media Giving Enough Importance to Environmental Issues?" 

This was an important activity to know where environmental journalism stands in the country and to empower youth in various ways to take a stand on the issue and become citizen reporters in order to address these issues. 

Kenya

Our success story continues to be that of  using plastic bottles to plant flowers and for beautification in school. We collected plastic bottles, cut them into appropriate shapes and used them to plant different flowers as well as making decorative patterns across the school yard. Our school now looks attractive with the bottles at different places in the school. We have turned the filth of waste into beauty

Malta

Students from St Thomas More College St Lucia came up with the idea of a 30-day litter challenge - where every day they come up with a new challenge at school; getting the whole school on board.  For the first term there was focus on Christmas - to make it as waste free as possible.  Other challenges included clean up, decorating with used material, eliminating disposables at school (teachers brought their own cups for the coffee machine) and giving workshops on how to wrap presents with reusable items!  Parents were also involved of course. 

A new set of 30-day challenge are being implemented in term 2 and 3

Wales

Year 6 pupils from Griffithstown Primary School are taking part in an investigation which looks into the pollution of their local canal. YRE Litter Less Campaign fits well with the aspirations of the School as the cleanliness of the canal is important to the children of the school and moreover, to the people of Griffithstown. The nearby Friends of Henllys Local Nature Reserve received a grant to improve the use of digital learning outdoors so it was agreed that members of the Group should train the pupils to use their underwater drone to look at litter in the canal which will create footage for their YRE film entry. The pupils at Griffithstown Primary spent a great day with Chris from the local nature reserve learning and practicing how to use the drone.

Wales

A group of creative media studies students with learning difficulties from Coleg Cymoedd, a further education college in South East Wales are taking part in YRE. The qualification has a research unit and a film making unit so taking part in YRE fits in particularly well with their learning objectives. Students took part in a YRE workshop outlining the problems of litter and an initial planning session for their YRE film. The tutor will carry on planning and developing their films with them. They also went on a visit to a local beach to witness first hand the effects of marine litter on our environment. The visit was enjoyed by all and they were intrigued by the amount of micro plastics found on the beach. These students are a great example of how YRE can inspire and involve all educational abilities.

Malta

On Wednesday 28th November at about 11:30 the Eko Skola and 3A, 4A, 5A students joined up together for St Lucia clean up event. From our school we walked to St Lucia local council to get gloves, pickers, garbage bags and recycling bags. We started cleaning round the playground and football ground area. We found may plastic bottles, cigarettes, lighters, tin cans, cartons, glass, paper, make-up, small piece of tile, parts of a fans, tin box, jablo, kids toys and ceramic flowers. We were surprised and appalled at the kind of rubbish that people decide to toss on the ground, instead of in a bin!! In all, we collected 16 green garbage bags and one black garbage bag, which contained mixed waste.   This activity made us aware of the need to keep our environment clean and that it really does not take much to put your waste in a bin!

A giant Christmas Tree was made our of collected plastic bottles to spread awareness on how to reuse material, and at the same time draw attention on the amount of bottles we are throwing away.

Read the news in the “Times of malta”.

Malta

In a bid to raise awareness of their campaign "From plastics to microplastics", students from Our Lady Immaculate school Hamrun held a debate on the issue.  A local TV presenter was invited to lead the debate, while speakers from various NGOs working on litter were invited to give their views.  All students were given a reusable straw - thus making it possible to refuse straws when going out.  On a different occasion a speaker from Birdlife spoke to year 4 and year 6 students about effects of plastic on the environment with special focus to birds.

As part of the same campaign, students have also eliminated use of disposable cups in the school - they urged the public to give them any mugs that they did not need - and now are fully supplied to cater to events without having to revert to disposables. 

Northern Ireland

Last November in collaboration with BBC Northern Ireland School Report Team, the Eco-Schools team organised two workshops to enable post-primary school pupils aged 11-19 to better understand journalistic techniques of written-, video- and photo-reportage, before taking off with their YRE projects for the 2019 campaign. All Northern Ireland post-primary schools were invited to take part to these two events. The response was successful: of the total of schools registered for this year’s YRE programme, 75% of them attended the events, with over 90 pupils participating in the 1-day workshops in Lisburn and Magherafelt.

Northern Ireland

A conference in Dublin’s Croke Park, looking at the Sustainable Development Goals and how Eco-Schools work supports the SDGsn was a big achievement for the two winners of last year’s YRE video competition. Pupils Max and Josh Kamalarajah, from Wallace High School, Northern Ireland, attended and presented their YRE video on food waste while discussing SDG2 “Zero Hunger”. The 160 attendees were blown away by the boy’s video and their professional presentation skills. Read our interview to the Wallace boys.

Spain

On March 4, 2019, the celebration of the Community Action Day took place at the Santa Rafaela SAFA EEPP of Pedro Abad (Córdoba). This day aimed to raise awareness among students and families of the importance of recycling and the proper management of waste. The conference given to the Young Reporters for the Environment and the rest of the students of the educational center focused on highlighting the interconnection between the different environmental problems.

The students were also able to present the journalistic works carried out within the Litter Less Campaign, which focused on measures by the municipality to detect improperly discharged garbage. The students were surprised by the large amount of waste produced and discharged into the environment. With all the photographs taken by the students, they made a photographic exhibition, to which the mayor of the municipality was invited and in which she was able to find out which were the most degraded places in the town. A process of joint reflection was carried out with the mayor, who gave ideas to improve and resolve the situation.

Spain

The students of the CEIP La Inmaculada or Salar (Granada) conducted an investigation on the state of conservation of the river that runs through the municipality, as they detected near the school a pipeline that discharged untreated wastewater directly into the river, leaving in its riversides numerous waste and garbage. 

To make this situation known and inform the population, the students decided to take action. First, they carried out a survey among the neighbors to know the degree of awareness and knowledge. Secondly, they conducted an interview with the Mayor of the town to express the seriousness of the situation, and finally, they organized a demonstration to demand measures to improve the environmental quality of the river. 

During the interview, the Mayor confirmed to the students that currently the wastewater is discharged directly into the river without being treated. According to his words, the municipality has done everything possible; however the resources of the Government of Andalusia are insufficient, since there are many sewage treatment plants that still have to be done. Meanwhile, the population continues paying fines for non-compliance with the European Directive. From the City Council they say that they are doing their best to solve this situation, and thank the students for investigating and informing the population.

China

In order to strengthen students' awareness of environmental protection and energy saving, Xinghe Experimental Primary School carried out garbage reduction publicity and learning activities. To guide students start classifying garbage, recycling and reducing paper waste, and protecting the environment from their own in daily life.

On March 14, a variety of recyclable bins appeared in the classes of Xinghe Experimental Primary School, divided into paper recycling bins and plastic and metal recycling bins. While the original trash bins in the classroom were used as non-recyclable bins. Under the guidance of senior students, junior students understand the significance and basic knowledge of garbage reduction. At noon, the children took part in the garbage reduction signature event in the Starbucks Square, and engraved their determination with tender strokes ‘garbage reduction, starting from me’. At the parent-teacher meeting in the evening , parents also show their support on signature cloths.

Garbage reduction is a major project of far-reaching significance for the benefit of future generations, which requires the participation of us all. The children of Xinghe call on everyone to join hands, consciously classify the garbage to protect the beautiful Mother Earth.

New Zealand

St Peter’s College in New Zealand carried out waste audits and discovered that plastic film wrap formed a significant waste item and was also a common littered item at school.

The environmental group aims to produce Beeswax wraps student use in the school to eliminate the need to use clingfilm wrap in school lunches. The immediate priority will be to distribute them to the Year 7 students and they will offer incentives in the form of house points each time the student uses the beeswax wrap in their lunchbox. The ultimate aim is to provide beeswax wraps and educate all students in the school about the sustainability of using the wraps.

The college will survey the grounds and property management team as to the reduction in the amount of clingfilm by students. Waste audits will be conducted before and after the programme to assess the decline in the use of clingfilm.

St Peter’s College have also implemented many projects with a focus on sustainability this year. They changed the school bin system and then implemented a program to inform the staff and students of how the new bin system worked. The school reduced waste to landfill by approx. 1.5 tonnes (Feb 2017 vs. Feb 2018)

Students produced a poster using the packaging and products sold by the school tuck shop to inform students as to the correct bin for each type of waste.

The school also began the Adopt-An-Area program where each house was given responsibility for a particular area of school in the effort to keep the school rubbish free.

At the School Fair, the students built waste stations to increase recycling and reduce the amount going into landfill.

Students have also begun a project with the school Edmund Rice group. A raised vegetable bed was installed and worm farms purchased using a grant from Auckland Council. The vegetables grown will be donated to the Auckland City Mission.

Lastly, the school introduced a Golden Ticket promotion: in an attempt to get students to actually notice litter “Golden Tickets” containing various prizes were hidden around the school at rubbish “hotspots”.

MALTA

Uploaded by Ramona Mercieca on 2017-12-07.

NEW ZEALAND

In 2018 St Peter’s College in New Zealand implemented a large number of Litter Less activities, which focused on sustainability. They changed the school bin system and then implemented a programme to inform the staff and students on how the new bin system worked. The school reduced waste to landfill by approx. 1.5 tonnes. Students also produced a poster using the packaging and products sold by the school tuck-shop to inform students about the correct bin for each type of waste.

Moreover, they built waste stations to increase recycling and reduce the amount of waste going into landfill and began a planting project. They installed a raised vegetable bed and worm farms, and the vegetables grown were donated to the Auckland City Mission.

The most popular initiative was the ‘Golden Ticket promotion’: In an attempt to get students to actually notice litter, ‘Golden Tickets’ containing various prizes were hidden around the school at rubbish ‘hotspots’.