Six Surrey schools have been awarded a total of £6,000 as part of the Rethink Waste scheme, our initiative aimed at encouraging Surrey residents to reduce what they waste.
The prize money will fund various environmental projects at the winning schools, including building a home for school guinea pigs, installing a green roof, creating raised beds, developing class gardens, building a bug hotel, and purchasing litter-picking equipment.
Earlier this year, 32 schools across Surrey joined the scheme, which allowed nearly 10,000 Rethink Waste members to donate points to them that they earned by participating in waste reduction activities. The schools with the highest number of donated points were awarded cash prizes to invest in environmental improvements. The winning schools were:
- Furzefield Primary and Nursery School, Merstham
- Northmead Junior School, Guildford
- Clandon C of E School, Guildford
- Bagshot Infant School
- Walton-on-the-Hill Primary School, Tadworth
Katharine Kothe, a teacher at Furzefield Primary and Nursery School, said: “Participating in Rethink Waste was a fantastic way to get our wider school community involved in choosing to follow a more environmentally friendly lifestyle. It was easy to take part and donate points, but also full of amazing suggestions that were easy to implement in daily life. The emails and support for teachers behind the scenes were wonderful, as was the competition element as it helped us strive to be number one.
I didn’t realise how competitive our school community was until another school overtook us, Furzefield really rallied to reach the top and we were astounded by the community involvement and support! We are extremely grateful to have received £1,500 and our Eco Committee are excited to spend it on furthering our work to improve the environment for our school and the local area.”
Cllr Marisa Heath, Chair of the Surrey Environment Partnership (SEP), commented: “We are delighted to see these Surrey schools benefit from the Rethink Waste scheme. The funds will support a range of fantastic projects that will enhance their local environments. Importantly, the schools are also helping us engage Surrey residents, with nearly 10,000 households signing up to Rethink Waste and learning how to reduce waste for the benefit of the planet.”
Rethink Waste, delivered by SEP in collaboration with Greenredeem, is a free waste-reduction scheme for all Surrey residents. Members receive weekly content such as quizzes, videos, and pledges, offering tips and tools to help them cut down on waste. By completing activities, participants earn points that can be used to enter prize draws or donated to charities and local primary schools.
To date, 8,914 households in Surrey have signed up to the scheme, completing nearly 120,000 activities, entering over 25,000 prize draws, and making more than 10,000 donations to charities and schools.
A further 15 primary schools in Surrey have signed up to take part in Rethink Waste with members able to donate points to them until 17 November 2024.