?REDUCE, reuse and recycle? is the message that will be filling the classrooms in West Devon this year as the borough council steps up its waste education programme. Already hailed as the most waste conscious region in Devon with residents recycling 30% of their rubbish, a three year programme has begun to raise more awareness of the issues and target anyone who has not been hit by the recycling bug. Among the initiatives are workshops for primary school children, presentations to community groups, roadshows and possible recycling newsletters and incentive schemes. The borough council is also working with Devon County Council, Westden and community composting groups to further the cause. The Yellow Woods challenge (collecting and recycling old Yellow Pages) will continue and so too will the more recent introduction Trees for Africa - Trees for UK Campaign (aluminium can recycling.) Schools will receive trees for their recycling efforts and trees will also be planted in Africa for each tonne of cans collected. School workshops are likely to take the form of a waste audit that quantifies the nature of the school?s own waste , a craft session where children create a magnetised message to fix to the fridge at home or a waste-free lunch which centres on the packaging in the children?s own packed lunches. Recycling education officer Andrew Barron told members of the council?s Environment and Community Committee this week it was important that messages received at school were taken home. ?It is important that we educate children about the three Rs in terms of kerbside collection of materials, recycling banks and green waste collections where appropriate, as well as in the use of the county council recycling centres, to influence their future actions,? he said. ?All assemblies and workshops will be followed by the distribution of appropriate promotional materials to the pupils and subsequently their households.? Cllr Alison Clish Green said people should remember to REFUSE as well as Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: ?I spend all my time saying no thankyou when I am given a bag in the shops and supermarkets. Every shop you go in you get a carrier bag automatically thrust at you and we have to refuse what we do not need.? As a food technology teacher in Plymouth Cllr Jayne Hill said hundreds of cans, packets and jars were thrown away each day in food technology lessons because it was classed as commercial/industrial waste. ?As an authority if we are going to teach children about recycling we are sending a mixed message if they are not allowed to recycle at school,? she said. ?We need impetus from this council to make sure every food technology room has a green recycling box.? It was agreed to issue green boxes to food technology departments at Okehampton and Tavistock Colleges. It was also suggested that hotels and hospitals be encouraged to recycle their waste.
