P3/4, with Alyssa and Daniel from P7, receive their new bins

Recycling is child’s play at Netherthird Primary

P3/4 at Netherthird Primary have taken delivery of new recycling bins for their playground, which will make recycling even easier for the whole school.

The Eco Committee and the Children and Young People’s Cabinet representatives, Alyssa and Daniel from P7, were looking for new ways to increase the amount of waste their school was recycling. They were inspired to do more after attending the Children and Young People’s Climate Change Conference and are currently working hard on a submission for a Clean, Green School Award.

The team spoke to their janitor Mr McCreadie and he felt that recycling bins within the playground would really help. The children then wrote to Cleaner Communities asking if they could have two new outdoor recycling bins.

Carson wrote: “We would like to recycle more to help the environment”, while Hayleigh wrote: “Can we have two plastic bins please for our playground? The whole school needs to do more the save the environment.”

Cleaner Communities were delighted to help, providing three recycling trolley stacks. The team delivered the new bins and held a question and answer session with the children in the playground. They were really put through their paces with all the brilliant questions about recycling plastics from the children.

Councillor Claire Leitch, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Net Zero, Environment and Climate Change, Equalities and Inclusion said: “There has been so much happening recently, we have launched our Climate Change Strategy, held our second Children and Young People’s Climate Change Conference and signed up to the UK100 Net Zero initiative. It feels like there is real momentum at the moment to tackle climate change, so I was delighted to hear that Netherthird Primary’s Eco Committee were focused on making positive change within their school. They were already recycling inside so an important step was making recycling available outside.

“Cleaner Communities have provided recycling trollies to schools across East Ayrshire to help increase the amount of waste that is recycled by our children and young people. What we want is for recycling to become second nature and part of everyday life whether you are at home, work or out and about in our communities. We want as much waste as possible, and that includes food waste, to be recycled, not sent to landfill.

“We all have to do our bit. As a Council, we scrutinising all areas of our work and setting improvement targets and our communities are doing the same through their Community Led Action Plans. I hope you are inspired by the wonderful children at Netherthird Primary and will also make any positive changes you are able to protect their future.”