Mallow’s Young Reducers scoop fantastic double at eco-awards
DAVIS COLLEGE STUDENTS HONOURED FOR CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE THE USE OF NON-RECYCLABLE PLASTICS
A GROUP of enterprising students from Mallow’s Davis College have ‘cleaned up’ in a national competition aimed at encouraging young people to put the environment first.
The school’s aptly named ‘Young Reducers’ team won a double in the 2020 ECO-UNESCO hosted ‘Young Environmentalist Awards’ - scooping both the senior ‘Waste Award’ and the Overall Senior Award’ in the prestigious competition.
Now in its 21st year, the awards recognise and reward the innovative and imaginative efforts made by schoolchildren across Ireland for their work in helping to improve the environment.
This years awards saw a record breaking 500 entries, with the winners announced online by RTÉ radio presenter Tara Stewart following an address by former President of Ireland Mary Robinson.
Elaine Nevin, ECO-UNESCO national director said the volume and nature of the entrants spoke volumes about the commitment of young Irish people to protecting the environment.
“We have received more applications than ever this year and despite COVID-19 interruptions, young people have continued to work on their projects at home,” said Elaine.
“Climate change and biodiversity loss are becoming real threats and young people this year have shown through their projects how they are tackling some of these issues. We are blown away by the passion and motivation of this year’s entries and their attitude towards making a positive environmental change,” she added.
Having witnessed at first hand the sheer volume of single-use plastics used in their school, the Davis College Young Reducers decided to take action through their project.
Not content with simply banning single-use plastics in the school, the students’ ultimate aim was to initiate a new school-wide legislation that would maintain the ban into the future, with annual inductions for new students.
With the backing of school principal Stephen Gilbert and his staff, the team the Young Reducers set off on a mission to reduce the amount of plastic used by the ‘Young Offenders’.
They even persuaded the star of the hit TV show, former Davis College pupil Demi Oviawe to star in video made as part of their awareness campaign, which also included organising a poster competition, quiz and free draw for students using reusable cups.
Over the course of the school year they also held workshops on making shampoo bars, moisturising bars and plastic free sanitary products, replaced plastic bottles in the school canteen with recyclable ones and visited classes to spread the message about plastic pollution and key solutions.
In addition, they worked alongside
Mallow Tidy Towns on litter picks.
Their outstanding commitment to the cause was not lost on competition judges, who were full of praise for the students.
“Small actions add up and all your contributed to your school being much more environmentally friendly,” wrote the judging panel in their citation.
“We were impressed by how you put on such a diversity of workshops and the passion you used to engage as much of the wider community as you could,” they added.
Young Reducers team member Aleksandra Proszkowiec said they wanted to send a clear message that young people care deeply about the environment.
“We wanted to show that climate change, waste production and pollution will affect the future generation and it is young people like us that are willing to make a difference,” said Aleksandra.
“We have been working to create awareness and reduce ‘Young Offenders’ in our school that have been using single-use plastics. We are delighted to have won the awards,” she added.