Wick High School hits litter collection target and receives £750

The Highland Council’s school litter project came to Wick last week with volunteers and local businesses getting behind the campaign at Wick High School.

Pupils and staff from Wick High School were joined by volunteers from the Lunch Box, R G McDonald Bakery and The Highland Council staff at litter hotspots around the town to encourage school pupils to use litter bags/ bins throughout the week.

In return for using the bins provided, pupils were given a token to hand in to the help the school reach a target total. Pupils who returned tokens were also entered into a prize draw to win £10 cash prizes.
 
Each afternoon the rubbish was analysed, to obtain valuable data about waste generated at school lunch breaks.  Nearly 21kg of waste was collected in the bins from the pupils over the week long campaign, of which 7kg was recyclable. This included 103 plastic bottles and 103 drink cans which were recycled.

In total, 1096 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.

Thomas McIntyre, Head Teacher from Wick High School said: “Our pupil volunteers were fantastic - amazing responsible citizens! The reaction and enthusiasm of all the pupils to the initiative was very positive.”

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.