SUSSED

Applemore College Eco Team are passionate about litter and have decided that this is the term to tackle litter around the college. Local Parish and New Forest District Councillor Peter Armstrong, Rachel Butler (Recycle for Hampshire) and Mandy Pickard (NFDC) visited the Eco Team and heard about their ideas and progress so far.

Councillor Armstrong sharing litter picking experiences with Applemore College’s EcoTeam members. Eco Team members explained how they are raising awareness of litter issues within the college, developing slogans “Pride Not Punishment” and “Love Where You Learn” and presenting to the student College Council. They were proud to tell how the Applemore College Site Manager has arranged for Biffa to supply the EcoTeam with thirty large recycling bins and a recycling skip to start the process of recycling as much of Applemore College’s waste as possible. Within a day of offering the bins to staff to place in their classrooms and offices, they were snapped up and the recycling journey had begun. Tutor groups have also been asked to sign litter pledges to show their commitment to keeping their school litter free. All these actions are a small start from which to grow.

Councillor Armstrong, who regularly takes action to collect litter in his local area, was keen to hear about a small team of litter pickers who, working closely with the site management team, have already started to collect litter around the college, even in the recent bitter winter temperatures! He commented “It’s brilliant to get the next generation asking questions and interested in keeping their community free of litter. We need to think of ways of recycling as much as possible whilst saving money and the solutions are created by working together. It’s all about educating the community about recycling and the impact of litter, and what better place to start than here at school?”

The EcoTeam has lots of plans to focus attention on litter and recycling and were very grateful for the advice and support given by Rachel Butler, Mandy Pickard and Councillor Armstrong. Ideas were generated for a ‘plan of attack’ over the next few months including running a school ‘Clean for the Queen’ litter pick, assemblies, recycling training, bin audits and incentives for keeping the school litter free.