A team of youngsters won a national competition with their innovative recycling bin.
Pupils from Year 8 and 9 at Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School won the Deloitte Better Futures competition and had their gamified recycling bin made.
They won the senior category which saw a total of 138 schools across the country submit ideas to design a new sustainable product. Team, Go Green Recycle's winning idea won the pitching competition run by Deloitte's partner Debate Mate.
The prototype bin was made by Deloitte's X Lab team and was installed in the school canteen in October and sees pupils earn recycling rewards.
READ MORE: Take the next step towards your future at Cardinal Heenan’s sixth form open evening
Winning team member Joe Leonard, 13, told the ECHO : “Basically, if you have a piece of rubbish you put it on the bin, it scans it and checks what it is. You put it in the bin, go to the computer and type your name and you will get a certain amount of points.
"That will take you to an award system that can help you get prizes like breakfasts and gift cards. We're looking for sponsorships to get more prizes. That's the general idea of it”.
Ed Greig, from Deloitte Digital, acted as a judge in the final and was really impressed with their idea. He invited the school to visit their London office.
Fynton Pimblett, 13, said: “It was a unique experience. We saw a lot of new things I wouldn't dream of seeing.
"I've never seen such amazing things such as a robotic dog, or seeing our bin for the first time. If I went back there, I wouldn't do anything different, I would just want to do that again”.
Ed's team, X Lab, worked with the students to make their bin a reality and took them through a design thinking process.
Myles Ambrose, 12 said: “Our ambition is to get this bin rolled out. Our idea can be global, stopping people from just chucking a bottle to wanting to get bottles and put them in the bin. It's going to help make our streets clean”.
Ed, the chief disruptor at Deloitte told the ECHO: "The younger generation are very ecologically aware. Giving them more confidence they can do something about it, is very valuable.
"The team were able to tap into their understanding of what would motivate and engage their fellow students. Creating a gamified solution has been a hit.
“The key thing is, they’ve recognised the importance of continually testing, learning, and responding to feedback as being the best way to effectively solve design challenges. It's easy to get overwhelmed with the news about the Climate Emergency, but we’re glad to be able to show young people they have the power to bring to life new solutions to solve the pressing problems we face.
“If we are to prevent a climate crisis, we’re going to need initiative, innovation, creativity, collaboration and experimentation, all things the team demonstrated".
Literacy coordinator at Cardinal Heenan, John Fenton added: "It was fantastic, they did really well with the pitch. The confidence they showed, and their ability to communicate their idea in the competition was fabulous.
"It made us extremely proud to see our boys be so innovative and so responsible, with the environment in mind, to create such a fantastic product. Then to see them get the victory and how that's progressed to product development.
"Its been a wonderful experience for them and great for us as a school. The boys have done incredibly well with it”.
Anyone wanting to be a recycling award sponsor should contact the school: admin@cardinal-heenan.org.uk
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