Please do your bit with recycling

Bishopston Matters has been contacted by Year 11 student Ashleigh Thomson with the request to publish the below article as part of her studies. Please read her feature on recycling below.

It may seem that we are constantly bombarded with leaflets, adverts and such like reminding us to recycle and the consequences we will face if we don’t, but how many people really listen? How many times have YOU picked up a leaflet with the headline ‘RECYCLING’ from your door mat, screwed it up and put it in the bin without a second thought? I bet it wasn’t the recycling bin you put it in either, was it?

Most of us believe that recycling is ethically the right thing to do and when recycling has numerous environmental benefits it seems the most logical too. Recycling saves energy, conserves natural resources, limits pollution, and supports several sectors of the economy but we, as a nation, still aren’t completely pulling our weight.
Most of the rubbish in Britain is sent for landfill or incineration. Because more and more waste is being produced, landfill space is running out. Although modern incinerators are much improved on those of the past, both landfill and incineration still cause huge environment damage.
I am a student at Colston’s School in Stapleton and for our Citizenship GCSE my group and I have been investigating further into the issue of recycle and we found, along with some shocking, some rather pleasing results…

We discovered that Bristol had been crowned the European Green Capital for 2015 at a ceremony in Nantes back in 2013. The title rewards cities which consistently achieve high environmental standards and are committed to further improvement and sustainability. Last year Bristol was the runner-up, finishing behind Copenhagen in Denmark. It is the third time the city has made the final shortlist. This shows that all our hard work isn’t going to waste.

To do our bit, my group has shown Key Stage 3 a presentation on the importance of recycling and handed out leaflets and questionnaires around school as well as interviewing teachers about what further action we could take towards recycling. We have done our bit, so why don’t you get thinking about what YOU can do? A small act towards helping recycling could lead to even more promising results in and around Bristol.

Ashleigh Thomson, Year 11, Colston’s School