Fantastic plastic drive teaches Nether Stowe students green message

Green-minded students at Nether Stowe School proved that they have a ‘lot of bottle’ when they launched a pioneering schoolwide plastic collection, to increase awareness of the importance of recycling.

As part of a competition between the school’s four colleges – Beacon, Chase, Trent and Wall – students were tasked with gathering as many plastic bottles as they could over two weeks, to contribute to their College’s collection.

The result was an enormous pile of bottles which otherwise would have ended up as waste in landfill.

Jenny Britcliffe, who oversees Personal Development and PSHE at the school – which is part of the respected Arthur Terry Learning Partnership – explained: “As part of our student leadership, we have an Eco Group who try to improve the community and sustainability around Nether Stowe.

“During the drive, our Eco Group members and Form Ambassadors went around collecting bottles from students, and we’ve collected a substantial amount. We’re going to take them to recycling this week via the minibus.”

The points earned by each College during the competition counted towards the year-end College Celebration, which will take place in mid-July. The winning College with the most points overall will be treated to an afternoon of inflatables, popcorn, treats and a barbecue.

Beacon College Captain Niamh Springett, aged 13, explained her role in the drive.

She said: “We’d go around each form and collect the bottles, and drop off boxes of them after every form because there were so many.”

Her fellow Beacon College Captain Ellie Reed, aged 12, said: “I thought it was fun because we got to go around the different forms and see what they’d done – some forms had only got a bottle or two, while others had boxes full of them!”

At the end of the drive, it was Wall who claimed the victory, with Wall 1 being the winning form.

Student Wellbeing Leader and member of Wall 1 Belle Griffiths, aged 12, said: “We were bringing in bags of bottles every day! It’s good to think all these bottles will be recycled and turned into something new.”

Building the students’ awareness of their environmental impact was the key motivator behind the drive. With the bottles assembled in a massive pile, the students were able to visualise just how much waste they produced, which would have potentially ended up in landfill.

Miss Britcliffe said: “We have hundreds upon hundreds of bottles, which might have ended up in the bin. Most of the bottles were ones used in school.

“This is going to be an ongoing thing now – it’s not just part of a competition. I want the students to learn the difference we can make just by collecting a few bottles. Until they actually see it, they don’t know how much plastic goes to waste.

“We want to take it further and focus full-time on our recycling at school.”

Caption:

Ellie Reed, Belle Griffiths and Niamh Springett with the plastic bottles collected by Nether Stowe students.