23/7/2010 - St Patrick's scoops recycling award

Children at a school near Kendal have scooped a top regional award for recycling.

St Patrick’s School at Endmoor has been named as the North West winner of the Recycle Week for Schools competition –a scheme organised by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) in the run up to last month’s Recycle Week.

Youngsters across the country were set the task of gathering pledges from family, friends and other members of their local community to recycle unwanted electrical items.

And by following through with their pledge during Recycle Week (June 21-27) and taking electrical items to recycling points, people received reward tokens which could be used to benefit a local school of their choice.

Four of the county’s household waste recycling centres –Clay Flatts in Workington, Kendal, Barrow and Bousteads Grassing in Carlisle were involved in taking equipment from those making pledges.

A total of 12 schools in Cumbria participated in the scheme but St Patrick’s came out top of all schools not just in Cumbria but among those participating across the North West.

For scooping the first prize St Patrick’s are being awarded £500 worth of garden centre vouchers that will be spent on improving the school grounds.

Councillor Tim Knowles, Cumbria County Council’s cabinet member for waste management, said: "The children at St Patrick’s School, and all our other schools that took part, should be congratulated for their fantastic efforts in encouraging their local communities to recycle.

"Children have an important role to play in encouraging us all to be greener as they are going to be the recyclers of the future and can help us pass on the recycling message to their parents and wider families.

"Practically every household has numerous electrical items that unfortunately are often thrown away rather than recycled so hopefully this campaign will go some way to getting people to think again."

Media enquiries to media officer John Ballard on 01228 226330.