DROITWICH Spa High School students have learnt the drastic impacts of littering thanks to a project which saw them collect rubbish dating back as far as the 1900’s.
The students took part in the litter picking exercise led by Keep Britain Tidy ambassador, Karen Blanchfield and were shocked to find decades and even centuries old rubbish in their area.
Karen runs the Little Litter Warriors project which aims to educate school children on the damage of littering as part of Wychavon District Council Anti-litter campaign.
As part of the campaign, over 800 pupils attended ‘My Planet’ assembiles to highlight the urgent work being carried out in the great pacific garbage patch, with an emphasis on plastic pollution in the worlds oceans.
Following the assemblies, 262 year 8 pupils from Droitwich Spa High School spent a week litter picking their community areas, successfully clearing the streets and parks of 21 bags of rubbish.
The litter picking day highlighted that most litter is ‘food on the go’ packaging and students learnt how different materials effect the environment and how they can remain for decades and even hundreds of years when littered.
Karen Blanchfield “The challenge set with all litter workshops is to not only pick up the litter you see but hunt out the litter you can’t see!
“Year 8 did just that finding litter decades old, from a Marathon wrapper from the late 1980’s, a crisp packet dated 1995 to an inkwell glass bottle from the early 1900’s.
“The pupil’s enthusiasm and determination really made these workshops enjoyable, and they were all shocked at how humans disrespect their community environment.
“I visit many schools over the academic year, it was a pleasure visiting Droitwich Spa High school and see just how litter free this huge school is onsite, they really do showcase how it can be done”.
Headteacher, Jonathan Brook said: “Wychavon District Council and Karen deserve the local community’s gratitude for organising this programme.
“It has been an excellent experience for our young people to get involved with and it has been a pleasure to participate in it.
“We’re really pleased that we’ve been able proactively introduce our young people to an opportunity to do something for others and the environment and the value of volunteering and participation.
“The children have really enjoyed it but have also experienced the feeling of making a positive contribution to society, which hopefully they will be keen to do again as they get older.”
