Dingwall pupils hit litter target and earn £750 for their school
The Highland Council’s school litter project came to Dingwall last week with volunteers and local businesses getting behind the campaign at Dingwall Academy.
Pupils and staff from Dingwall Academy were joined by volunteers from the Community Council, Parent Council, staff from The Greenhouse, Tesco, Lidls, Rowan and Council staff at litter hotspots around the town to encourage school pupils to use litter bags and bins throughout the week.
In return for using the bins provided, pupils were given a token that they were required to return to the school to help reach a target total. Pupils who returned their tokens to the school were also entered into a prize draw to win £10 cash prizes as incentives to reward pupils for disposing of their litter properly. In addition the local businesses including Lidls, Cookies, Wimpey and Pizza Direct kindly donated prizes for the pupils.
In total, a staggering 1757 tokens were handed in by the pupils and the school will now receive £750 to spend on eco equipment or initiatives as part of the campaign. The local community will also receive up to £500 of funding to spend on eco equipment or initiatives for their involvement during the week.
The Rector from Dingwall Academy, Karen Cormack said “Pupils responded really well to the initiative and it was an excellent example of the whole school community coming together and making a positive difference. We are very grateful to the pupil, parent and community volunteers who helped out.”
The Scope Litter Campaign which is being funded by Zero Waste Scotland as part of a Scotland wide trial, aims to reduce the amount of lunch time litter around secondary schools and to build links between the community, businesses and schools.
Each afternoon the rubbish was analysed, to obtain valuable data about waste generated at school lunch breaks. Over 34 kg of waste was collected in the bins from the pupils over the week long campaign, of which 8 kg was recyclable. This included 140 plastic bottles and 63 tin cans which were recycled.