Before the Christmas Break Elli, our Youth Engagement Lead, went over to Trinity Academy Leeds to work with their Earthshot group. The students wanted to focus on reducing their waste as an entire school. Our What a Waste workshop was perfect for this!
Elli and the students first discussed what waste is and what happens to items when we are done with them, thinking about recycling and landfills and the consequences of there not being an ‘away’ when we throw things in the bin. Then the group played a micro-plastics game where students learned how micro-plastics get into our food chains. The next task was to focus on the idea of repurposing waste. All the students had an old T-shirt with them, and with a few simple alterations, the T-shirt became a useful tote bag!
After the Christmas break, Elli returned to the school and found that the students were proud to show off their repurposed bags and even tested them out using the classroom equipment to prove the bags’ durability. Finally, they discussed how the Earthshot group would work together to raise awareness of waste reduction and recycling across the school. All students logged onto the Power of 10 website to gain access to Another Way’s Changemaker Toolkit where all the ideas from their chats and resources are available to them.
“I can’t wait to return later in the spring to find out how they have got on!” Elli, Another Way’s Youth Engagement Lead said.
Paige Armstrong, the Earthshot Lead Teacher said, “Our sessions delivered by Elli have been great! Our Earthshot Ambassadors have been focusing on reducing waste as one of their goals this year. Another Way organised a session which enabled students to take part in practical examples of how to reduce waste, upcycling an old t-shirt into a reusable bag. Students thoroughly enjoyed this, and Elli kindly came back for a second session so that students could finish them. Students have used the Power of 10 website to further explore initiatives they can use to reduce waste, and we will continue to use this in future sessions to achieve our overall goal. Thank you, Elli and Another Way!”
