Launch of the Litter Less Campaign 2019/2020 in Malta.
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
