Hereford’s Trinity Primary School has partnered with waste management company, MYGroup, on a recycling scheme that will see pupils collect plastic bottle tops to be remanufactured into furniture and fittings for their school, all created from the processed waste plastic.
The MYGroup scheme, SchoolCycled – currently active in primary schools across the UK – provides educational resources on recycling and sustainability, while incentivising pupils to recycle.
Yorkshire-based MYGroup is a market leader in processing waste considered ‘unrecyclable’ and has invested in a series of advanced technological processes at its facilities, meaning the plastic bottle tops – normally destined for landfill or incineration, due to most local authorities lacking the facilities to process such items – can be completely recycled.
Like any plastic waste considered hard or impossible to recycle – such as packaging film or items of cosmetic and clinical waste – MYGroup will process the collected bottle tops into MYboard™, a material similar in consistency to plywood.
MYboard will be used to manufacture a range of furniture and fittings for the school, including chairs, tables and desks, A-boards and mud kitchens. Pupils will be able to choose products based on the weight of bottle tops they have collected.
In addition, MYGroup is providing the school with a series of free online lesson plans covering the impact of plastic pollution and the importance of recycling and sustainability.
The company has also provided recycling boxes for collection of the bottle tops and branded materials to promote and reinforce participation in the scheme, such as posters, certificates and stickers.
The SchoolCycled scheme aligns with the Department for Education’s strategy on sustainability education, which aims to prepare young people for a world impacted by climate change through learning and practical experience.
A representative for the school said: ‘We are committed to creating a more sustainable future for our students and the community. We believe that by working together we can make a real difference in reducing our environmental impact. Joining SchoolCycled is a fantastic way to engage our children and provide them with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience of recycling.’
Steve Carrie, Director, MYGroup, said: ‘We are committed to educating the next generation about the importance of recycling and sustainability. Focusing on such a simple, but nonetheless prevalent item of plastic waste as a bottle top encourages children to engage in the process of recycling at an early age, while the items we manufacture from the processed material demonstrate the circular economy in action.’
‘I’m proud to be working with Trinity as part of the roll-out of the SchoolCycled scheme across the UK and we encourage every primary school to get involved.’
MYGroup is currently in talks to activate SchoolCycled in hundreds more schools and is keen to speak to potential sponsors to help expand the programme. The company currently funds the scheme entirely, with no cost to the schools involved.
