Margaret River High School has new recycling bins thanks to the ‘Rise up Roots Down’ Campaign.

The ‘Rise up Roots Down’ campaign has seen WA Landcare Network (WALN) recently partner with Intrepid Landcare to connect and support young people who are passionate about the environment. By backing three inspirational young West Australians to bring their landcare ideas to reality, ‘Rise Up Roots Down’ hopes to inspire the next generation to get involved in landcare.

Jamie Lumsdaine and Virginia Paris were granted a $1000 from WALN in late 2017 to inspire a comprehensive recycling project at the Margaret River Senior High School (MRSHS).  Jamie was fortunate to travel oversees to Sri Lanka on a music tour and marine debris project in November 2017 and came back inspired to work with young people. Whilst overseas Jamie helped with beach clean ups, spoke to local government and worked with schools students about how changes to waste and recycling in their towns could be made.

In their ‘Rise up Roots Down’ event Jamie and Virginia worked with the MRSHS Community Action Team to kick off a comprehensive recycling project at the school. Jamie shared his experiences with the students and assisted them to plan what could be done to improve the schools waste practices. Grant funds were used to purchase a number of new recycling bins for the school.

The MRSHS Science Teacher Emma Campbell said ‘the school’s community action team was humbled by the gesture, and the additional bins  would complement the schools recycling system’. She added that ‘the team was now working with the students to educate them around waste and considered while recycling is good, things like single use plastics in lunches should be avoided’.

WALN congratulates Jamie and Virginia on their excellent work and plans to follow their further engagement with the school and other waste reducing projects in the Margaret River community.

(L to R) Emma Campbell (Science Teacher at MRSHS), Ellenor Sibon, Kayla Tribbeck, Dusky Hastie, Shanae Leece, Cameron Manser, Sinead Corr (Science Teacher at MRSHS), Virginia Paris, Jamie Lumsden (Landcare).