A group of Year 7 students from Irrawang High School have taken a simple recycling idea to the hallowed halls of parliament house via their State MP Kate Washington.
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Some weeks ago the students got together and decided to begin a petition aimed at convincing the NSW Government to provide recycling bins in all NSW and Australian schools.
Currently the bins have to be purchased by the school principals.
The school’s community liaison officer Lue Fagan said that the campaign, called Lead the Cycle 2 Recycle, had been gaining traction online since it was first publicly announced last Thursday and that signatures had reached in excess of 700 in just one week.
“The comments from the students are along the lines of ‘our generation has grown up doing it [recycling] at home, so why isn't it continued at school?’,” Mrs Fagan said.
“They have written to the NSW Premier, the ministers for the environment, education and local government asking for action.”
Ms Washington was presented with the petition at the school grounds on Monday. “I thank the students for their campaign. They’ve done an excellent job identifying an issue, proposing a solution, and getting support from more than 700 people.
“I can now take this petition to the relevant ministers and shadow ministers, raise the issue with them, and I’ll report back to the students about those conversations.”
Making the presentation to Ms Washington were Year 7 students Jacinta Agius, 12, Emily Whittington, 12,, Ebony Delafontaine, 12, Annabeth Scott-Glassock, 13, Sibella Rowan, 12, Zachary Martin, 13, and Jarrod Knorr, 13.
Sibella Rowan said that the idea for the petition had come as a result of a classroom project dealing with recycled material. “It seemed right that these much-needed recycling bins be provided by the government,” she said.
Fellow student Annabeth Scott-Glassock said that the entire school population, students and staff, had been very supportive of the initiative.