Overall winners Pratts Bottom Primary School were presented with a cheque for £500 by Councillor Stephen Carr, Leader of Bromley Council, for recycling the most WEEE (Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment) per pupil head, in the six month long competition. The top pupils filled a large pink recycling container with everything from hairdryers to radios and generated an amazing 8.95kgs per head. More than 16000 pupils from the 37 participating schools joined the successful competition collecting a total of over 21000kgs. The competition targeted young borough residents encouraging them to bring in smaller broken and unwanted electrical goods that traditionally may have ended up in landfill.
Councillor Stephen Carr, Leader of Bromley Council said, “This competition shows just how enthusiastic our young people are about recycling. Any initiative that encourages waste to be diverted from landfill, helping to keep council tax down is essential. The importance of recycling and the responsibility we have to recycle as much of our waste as possible is a lesson to all of us.”
Manager of SWEEEP Kuusakoski Justin Greenaway added: “Every school involved with this needs a pat on the back as their enthusiasm has been terrific. The raw materials from waste electronics are a valued commodity containing numerous rare earth metals. Diverting 21 tonnes of waste that could otherwise have gone to landfill is to be commended”.
“We were delighted to work with Bromley Council on this initiative. The competition was a great success and helped raise awareness among the young people about the benefits of recycling their electrical waste” said Veolia’s WEEE Compliance Scheme Manager.
Burwood School won the £300 second prize for recycling 8.71kg per head, with the £200 third prize going to Downe Primary School for collecting 7.64kg per head.The competition was run in partnership with Bromley Council, Sweeep Kuusakoski and Veolia Environmental Services and encouraged pupils to bring in anything with a battery or a plug to be recycled.
Each participating school was given a large container and one week to fill it with as much electrical waste as possible. The list of items also included computer game consoles, power tools and other small items like adaptors and chargers. The container was then taken to the Sweeep Kuusakoski recycling facility where its contents were chipped back down to raw materials such as glass, metals and plastics and taken away to be made into new usable items.