Bromley Council in partnership with Veolia, have joined forces to launch Recycling Heroes, an education programme empowering the next generation to recycle more and to make Bromley even greener.
Recycling Heroes education programme developed with input from education specialists uses fun activities and engaging discussions aims to help students to reflect on why they believe recycling is important and create their own personal recycling and waste minimising targets. The lessons will be offered to all primary schools across the borough.
Recycling Heroes teaches the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling to help protect the environment and will give pupils the opportunity to ask questions to real-life recycling experts. The programme can be delivered virtually and face-to-face in classrooms with its animated graphics having been developed during the pandemic. Pupils that complete the course will graduate as Recycling Heroes, using their new superpowers to influence their families and friends to recycle.
Bromley Council has set a target to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2029, by which time current Key Stage 2 pupils will be in their late teens and will be thinking about their future careers. The Recycling Heroes programme could be a big step in inspiring Bromley’s future sustainability leaders.
Recycling Heroes was trialed at Balgowan Primary School and Crofton’s Junior School earlier this year to explore the best ways to engage with the community.
Councillor William Huntington-Thresher, Executive Councillor for Environment and Community Services said, “The children of this borough are our future. We know it’s vital to share the importance of not only recycling but also minimisation of waste with this generation and the next. The Recycling Heroes project aims to do just this, and Bromley council are excited about contributing to the development of environmentally conscious residents. Recycling Heroes are our superheroes of the future, protecting the planet, with a passion for the environment that matches our own. As one of London’s leading boroughs for recycling we have made great progress, but we know we need to do more with recycling and reducing waste having both environmental and financial benefits.”
Miss Silcott, eco-school lead and teacher at Balgowan Primary School, said “As an eco-school, Balgowan Primary School was committed to trying out the interactive Recycling Heroes programme. The pupils enjoyed learning about how to minimise waste, the recycling process and the myriad of products that can be recycled in Bromley. We are confident that pupils will use this new knowledge to encourage their families and friends to recycle as much as possible.”
David Fitzgerald, General Manager, Veolia, said, “We have joined forces with Bromley Council to set up and deliver this educational package and we are looking forward to rolling out the programme to more schools across the borough. At Veolia, we understand that with great power comes great responsibility so we are passionate about educating communities on how we can all play our part in reducing waste and recycling more. It is crucial for us to empower the next generation to make a change, so we hope this initiative will inspire pupils in Bromley to use their recycling hero powers to save the world and help Bromley become an even greener borough.”
Bromley Council will start to contact schools in the next few weeks to encourage as may to take part as possible.
To find out about your recycling and waste services, and learn about what happens to your recycling and non-recycling www.bromley.gov.uk/wastenews.
Ends
Editor’s notes
About Veolia - Veolia group aims to be the benchmark company for ecological transformation. With nearly 179,000 employees worldwide, the group designs and provides game-changing solutions that are both useful and practical for water, waste and energy management. Through its three complementary business activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, preserve available resources, and replenish them. In 2020, the Veolia group supplied 95 million people with drinking water and 62 million people with wastewater service, produced nearly 43 million megawatt hours of energy and treated 47 million metric tons of waste. Veolia Environnement (listed on Paris Euronext: VIE) recorded consolidated revenue of €26.010 billion in 2020 www.veolia.com.
For media enquiries, please contact Andrew Rogers, Communications Executive on 020 8461 7670 or email Andrew.Rogers@bromley.gov.uk or Ellie Chapman at Veolia elena.chapman@veolia.com.