Educational 'Rubbish' talk at Wingham Primary School by Dover District Council officers
Tuesday 12 March 2024
Wingham Primary School recently had a visit from AJ and Gemma who are Environmental officers for Dover District Council (DDC) to talk to the children about the environmental impact of litter and dog waste.
It was a really fun, but thought-provoking assembly where the children discovered the length of time everyday litter products take to biodegrade.
Did you know that chewing gum never degrades and costs a fortune to clean up?
Mr Wilson, Year 4 teacher, learnt first hand the impact litter has on the natural world and nature when the children did an interactive quiz and for every question they got right litter was dumped over him! It was a very memorable assembly.
Hopefully as a result of this children will go home and inform other household members of ways they can ensure a cleaner, healthier environment is shared by all.
To find out more about DDC's Environmental Educational talks, please visit their website here:-
https://www.dover.gov.uk/Environment/Environmental-Crime/Environmental-Education.aspx
Information from the DDC website:-
Interesting Facts (Litter and Dog Fouling)
- If you are caught littering or not picking up after your dog the penalty is up to £100
- Littering is a criminal offence
- Over 70,000 pets and wild animals are hurt in Britain every year because of litter
- It costs around £858 million a year to clean the streets of England
- Cigarette Butts are one of the most commonly dropped forms of litter
- A drinks bottle takes around 450 years to biodegrade as per the time lines shown below
Litter Lotto mobile phone app
The LitterLotto is a free mobile phone app which provides the opportunity for users to win on the spot prizes and weekly jackpots for 'doing the right thing and putting their litter in the bin'. It is downloadable from both the App Store on ISO and Google Play store on Android phones.
The app assists in trying to change the way people think about litter as waste but instead think of it as an opportunity. There are league tables if you are a competitive litter picker, and you can also win litter lotto coins which enable you to enter prize draws for other prizes or even plant a tree.
For more information, take a look a the DDC website here: Litter Lotto (dover.gov.uk).
Litter Lotto have sponsored the DDC REACH Awards for this year which recognise those within our communities who are doing great work to improve the environment we all share. Further information on how to nominate or apply for an award across five categories can be found on the following weblink REACH Awards 2024 (dover.gov.uk) . Closing date for nominations is 6th of May 2024.