Newstead Wood sixth form students have organised a Bio-Eco Society to make their school and pupils more environmentally aware.

Working with the Green Schools Project, Emily McDonald and Ella Wingard were the masterminds behind the initiative and impressed upon the school the need for more recycling, to help save the environment.

Emily said: “We think that protecting the environment is incredibly important and we want to make sure our school is doing the right thing.”

The school are already recycling paper but the students wanted to look at the bigger picture. They organised a ‘waste audit’ starting with the canteen and discovered that 90% of the waste was recyclable or compostable.

It was important to them to address this situation, so they contacted the school’s waste management provider Biffa and asked that a mixed recycling service be added to their collection service.

In addition to this they organised a clothes swap where students donated hundreds of items and new owners were found for clothes that otherwise would have been discarded.

Henry Greenwood, a former maths teacher and founder of the Green Schools Project worked with the students to help get the programme off the ground. His vision is to create an environmental programme designed to help students build important life skills.

He said: “I’ve been impressed with the students from the start, I came to visit the school and deliver an assembly which they arranged and helped to present to get volunteers for the new society.

“They are really enthusiastic as they recognise that climate change will have a big impact on the lives of their generation and that their efforts can play a part in tackling this issue.”

The long term aim for the school is to get the students to use the correct bins and endorse the skills they have learned by bringing them into their home environment and the community.