Children fly the green flag
Pupils form a committee and plan and undertake work to reduce, reuse and recycle. In our school we first targeted milk cartons - we wash, squash and store until we take them to our local recycling centre at Rathroeen. We have reduced our refuse for landfill from six black bags to two.
We also use recycled paper for notes. We collect stamps and give them to the missions and batteries for transport to Rathroeen.
The pupils, with the help of our secretary, produce green newsletters. In this way we keep adults informed of our work. We also encourage adults to follow our example. As with the Blue Flag we have to reapply every two years to retain our Green Flag status. In addition we now focus on energy. We have learned about renewable and non-renewable sources. We are extending a nature trail. Parents help with clean-up and planting. We also plant native trees around the school.
We organise a little clean-up on all the approach roads to the school. We plan this to coincide with An Taisce’s yearly Spring Clean Campaign. Last year residents and parents collected 50 black bags of rubbish.
Ballina UDC arrange to collect the mountain of rubbish and the Tidy Towns committee also helps us. Our message to adults is to start recycling - it soon becomes easy and then you do it automatically. We all have to keep trying and eventually the litter bugs will be defeated.
Johanna McKenna
Chairperson
Green Flag Committee
Behymore NS
Ballina
Co Mayo
