A GROUP of young people from the Rosses have made it to the final of a national film competition in Galway this Sunday where they will be recognised for producing a short film about single use plastics.
The Rosses Neighbourhood Youth Project (NYP) Foróige Green Team produced the video after they went on a beach clean up and realised how much damage plastics, such as bottle tops and plastic bags, are doing to our environment.
There is 15 young people on the green team are from four local primary schools – Scoil Roisín, Dungloe, Acres National School, Burtonport, Belcruit National School, Kincasslagh and St Cronas National School, Dungloe. Three members of the group Owen Mullis, Shanna Cowley, and Ryan Mc Fadden spoke to the Donegal News this week about how fantastic it would be to take home the top prize at the ReelLIFE Science Video Competition. 12 year-old Owen said more young people are now starting to talk about environmental issues.
“I think it is important to highlight single use plastics because they are destroying the earth, marine animals, animals on land and humans,” said Owen.
Ryan said the group have learned a lot from researching facts for the film. One that stood out for him was that 70 per cent of beach litter is made up of cigarette butts, plastic bottles, plastic bags, polystyrene and our number one culprit single use plastics. Ryan was also amazed to learn that there is manmade plastic garbage patches in our oceans and the closest one to Donegal is in the Atlantic Ocean.
The children have shown their educational video to one local primary school so far and it is hoped that it will inspire more young people to join the Green Team. Clare Mullan, Project Worker at NYP, said the project has given the young people an opportunity to reach out to the community and have a conversation about the environment. The local community has also been very supportive in helping raise funds to cover the costs of sending the team to the Galway Science and Technology Festival at the weekend.
You can watch the film here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6HYhesfB9g8&feature=youtu.be
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