Young Eco-Warriors: New 'Cleaner Streets' App for primary schools

Bapchild & Tonge School 'Eco-warriors' using the app to report litter

Brent Council already operates the Cleaner Brent Phone App for reporting flytipping and much else.  Could we see Brent schools using something similar in the future?

Primary schools across the country are invited to join a national clean-up mission, using the latest technology to help make the area around their school cleaner.

Environmental reporting app, Love Clean Streets, was successfully used by Eco-Schools across England in July this year. The successful pilot study took place with 11 primary schools from Rochdale to Kent and has resulted in the Love Clean Streets Board committing to develop the app further for use within the curriculum.

Year 5&6 Woolmore Primary School Students making a report of a vehicle part on the pavement

The modified app, developed specifically for primary school children to use, will be launched in schools throughout the UK in early 2017 and will be fully functional as a tool for both learning and taking action on local environmental issues in school catchment areas. Teachers involved in the pilot study reported considerable learning skills and educational value across the curriculum, positively mentioning benefits to Personal Social Health Economic, litter education, use of technology and demonstrating relevance to our everyday lives, encouraging pupils to be active citizens.

Max, aged 9, a pupil from Middleton Parish C of E Primary School in Middleton, North of Manchester, took part in the pilot study in the summer term which involved looking around the school grounds for environmental issues to report. He said: "The app is good as you can inform people of the areas you don't like and they will then make the environment a better place to live in."

Susannah Butcher, Eco- School leader at Bapchild & Tonge School, said: "The children had a lot of fun taking part in the project. It was an excellent chance for us to do some real work in trying to combat the problem of litter in the school area. " Pupils liked that they could take a picture, detail the problem and send it off themselves. They liked it even more when an overflowing bin outside the school as reported at lunchtime and by end of school at 3.15 it had been emptied!

"This project highlighted a variety of local environmental issues and raised questions with the children, which ensured they were fully engaged and motivated by the task. Smart phones and tablets are big part of children's lives, so showing them how these can be used in a positive way made the lesson really enjoyable for them," said Susannah.

Sophie, aged 11, a pupil from Bapchild & Tonge School in Kent, said: "I hate seeing litter on the way to school. With the app I can let someone know there is litter and it is cleaned up." Love Clean Streets Founder, Ian Blackburn, said: "We believe that educating the next generation on the importance of keeping our environment clean is a step in the right direction to ensure our world is a cleaner, happier place to live for generations to come. By getting involved with the LCS Education Project, children will ensure the issues do not go unnoticed and will inspire their peers to follow their lead."

Primary schools across the UK are invited to register their interest in taking part next summer by contacting Ian Blackburn on +44 203 126 4885 or emailing ian@bbits.co.uk. A further announcement will be made next spring when the revised app for primary schools has been tested and is ready for UK roll-out.

Scrutiny Committee delves into green bins

Some of the issues raised on Rik Smith's guest blog on the green bin charge LINK came up at the Brent Scrutiny Committee last night.

Cllr Duffy expressed doubts about the report's claim that the charge had not resulted in more garden waste going into grey bins but Chris Whyte, head of Environment Management, said that this had been confirmed by 'visual inspections', officers would take it up if it became apparent there was a problem.

Duffy said that he would expect weekly, rather than fortnightly, collections of the blue bin dry recycling, should have resulted in less going into the residual grey bins, but this had not been the case. Whyte said this could be accounted for by an increase in the borough's population, an explanation that Duffy did not accept.  Former environment lead member Cllr Keith Perrin asked if the council were collecting enough dry recycling now to merit weekly collections.

Dumped Christmas trees in Chalkhill Friday January 8th 2016

Officers were urged to do more to increase take up of compost bins by residents. Fly-tipping was a major concern with the report claiming that after an initial surge there had been no substantial increase in the fly-tipping of garden waste but Cllr Southwood conceded that the council needed to be more pro-active regarding the collection of Christmas trees. Chris Whyte said that the council had an obligation to pick up any tree left in the street and did not want residents without green bins to put them into blue bins as this would encourage them to use them for organic waste throughout the year.

There was close questioning on contamination  of dry recycling by organic waste and of the additional cost of fly-tipping. Although fly-tipping came under a single contract charge by Veolia, so there was no additional charge for any increase in fly-tipping, it did cost in terms of an increase in landfill tax.

There was extensive discussion on making the 'Cleaner Brent' smart phone app LINK more widely known and it was agreed that it could be demonstrated at Brent Connects meetings.

On missing statistics for Q3 in the report Chris Whyte explained that the figures would be available but there was a lag in gathering the data from various data points.

The Committee agreed a recommendation from Cllr Nerva that the council consider distributing organic waste collection bags at libraries and other centres (he suggested five bags for £10) so that residents without green bins or compost bins could recycle at kerbside.

The issue of dry recycling and organic waste collections from flats and multi-occupied houses continues to be an issue and there were calls for enforcement of an obligation via the licensing scheme for landlords to ensure efficient recycling.

Cllr Duffy asked why Veolia had retained £40,000 of the £120,000 additional revenue from the better than expected take-up of the green bin charge. He had fought for the council to retain the whole amount. Chris Whye said that this had been reinvested by Veolia in an additional vehicle to cope with the 3,000  extra green bin customers. Duffy was not satisfied with this, suggesting that Veolia's initial costing must have included some leeway for extra capacity.

Intervening Cllr Perrin said he was concerned that there didn't seem to have be a mechanisom for the allocation of the £120,000 including the retention of £40,000 be Veolia. Was it a one off payment or an annual charge?

The chair, Cllr Kelcher, allowed me to ask a question from the public gallery. I asked about the claim in the report (6.1) that 35% of the reduction in green waste collected would be because it 'would no longer be produced'. I suggested that there was a wider environmental consideration here including the paving over of front gardens to reduce vegetation or the burningof garden waste affecting already poor air quality in the borough.  Chris Whyte had no information on this but said it was a consideration.