PRIMARY schools in County Donegal continue to impress in the race for the environment, with an additional 79 schools signing up this year to take on the WEEE Pledge challenge.
A total of 91 Donegal schools are now members of the WEEE Ireland schools recycling programme, WEEE Pledge, which encourages students and teachers to recycle their waste batteries in blue WEEE Ireland battery boxes.
WEEE pledge aims to teach students and their families about the importance of recycling and being responsible for the environment, while giving them the chance to win lots of fantastic prizes and make their way up the leader board based on the number of waste batteries they collect.
The WEEE pledge programme began in January 2014 as solely a battery recycling campaign and has since grown to include small WEEE items such as old and broken hair straighteners, kettles, toasters, electrical toys and technology.
Three schools in Donegal were recently awarded prizes for their recycling efforts in the WEEE Pledge programme. These were:Raphoe Central NS; Brownknowe NS and Droim Mor.
All three schools went above and beyond to encourage students to recycle batteries. Raphoe Central N S for example initiated an Easter draw for all 183 pupils involved to create an additional incentive, with children being entered into a draw for every 10 batteries they collected. Due to the huge effort made by everyone in Raphoe Central N.S they have managed to collect a staggering 4,000 waste batteries this year.
Together, the WEEE Pledge schools in Donegal have recycled an electrifying 517Kg of batteries so far this year. With the additional 79 schools now signed up, the sky is the limit for Donegal recycling figures in the years to come.
Commenting on the success of the programme Conor Leonard, Collections and Projects Manager of WEEE Ireland said: “We’re absolutely delighted with the response the WEEE Pledge programme has generated so far. Not only is this helping Ireland meet its EU recycling targets, it’s ensuring our future generation is informed on the importance of WEEE and waste battery recycling and how everyone is responsible for the environment. These schools are the leaders in recycling for their communities and we hope their enthusiasm inspires others to join in.”
It’s not just schools who can get involved, here are some tips for how parents can help their little recyclers get involved in WEEE Pledge and safe battery recycling: Collect your used batteries at home to bring to school; Place them into WEEE Ireland blue battery boxes to teach children the importance of recycling and ask family members and friends to get involved.
For further information about the WEEE Pledge programme or to register your school log on to www.weeepledge.ie