Minister joins Pen-y-fro Primary pupils to unveil award-winning artwork

The Minister for Environment, Hannah Blythyn, has unveiled new artwork that will adorn Swansea’s recycling vehicles this summer. 

The artwork was created by Pen-y-fro Primary School pupil, eight-year-old Polly, who designed a poster about recycling food waste. It was selected as the winner from more than 220 entries as part of the Swansea Food Recycling Mission; a campaign launched in April for Swansea school children to learn about how food waste is transformed into electricity.

Delivered by Recycle for Wales, in partnership with Swansea Council, Wastebuster and Eco-Schools, The Swansea Food Recycling Mission aimed to teach Swansea’s Key Stage 2 pupils how the county’s recycled food waste is treated at an anaerobic digestion plant to create electricity to power local homes, schools and tourist attractions. 

More than half of Swansea’s primary schools registered to take part in the Mission, which provided curriculum-linked activities and resources designed to help pupils understand the anaerobic digestion (AD) process. The Mission also included a homework activity to record unavoidable food waste (such as used tea bags, banana peels and apple cores) in a food diary and discover how much energy they could produce using a fun online energy calculator called ‘The Electrogenerator’. 

Pupils were then encouraged to design a poster about recycling food waste and enter it into the Mission’s competition. The prize also included an exclusive tour for Polly and her class of the local food recycling plant in Bridgend, operated by Agrivert, for them to see where Swansea’s food waste goes and how it is turned into electricity. 

More and more people in Swansea are recycling their food waste. 72% of residents use the weekly food recycling service provided by the Council, and last year alone they recycled enough food to power a whole school for six years. A recent survey carried out in the area revealed that most residents recycle their food waste to support their community and do their bit for the environment.

Minister for Environment, Hannah Blythyn, said: “I’m forever impressed by the passion our school pupils here in Wales have for our environment. Well done to all the students who took part and congratulations to Polly and Pen-y-fro Primary. I can’t wait to see the new-look recycling vehicles on the streets of Swansea!”

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Catrin Palfrey, Recycle for Wales Campaign Manager, said: “We were delighted with the fantastic response by schools across the county to the Swansea Food Recycling Mission. Thank you to all schools who delivered the lessons and to all the pupils who designed posters, there were so many brilliant entries. We hope the campaign has inspired pupils, as well as parents, guardians and teachers, to keep on putting food waste in their caddies so it can help create more renewable energy for Swansea.”

Mark Thomas, Swansea Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment Services, said: “The benefit of this latest campaign is we can get children, at a young age, to understand the benefits of food recycling and ensure that as they get older, they see this as normal practice when it comes to disposing of household waste. 

“Many residents are also doing a fantastic job and are recycling their food waste. I’m confident that by encouraging more residents to recycle their food waste along with other kerbside recycling services we provide, we will continue to meet government recycling targets and in doing so improve our local environment.”

To view more posters entries and try out ‘The Electrogenerator’, visit https://foodrecyclingmission.org.uk/swansea/