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Spires Academy - Youth Award for Recycling

A school project to build an elephant out of tin cans - to get young people into the habit of recycling - is the brainchild of the Student Council at Spires Academy. Pupils have christened the sculpture 'Ellie the Elephant goes environmental'.

Clive Birnie, the Community Youth tutor said: 'We all agreed we wanted a bit of a buzz around recycling. Stacking up cans and washing them out for recycling can seem like a bit of a chore, so we decided to use them at first to build a very visible work of art with a prominent place in the school.'

Pupils from years 9 - 11 will create the sculpture, which is envisaged as a baby elephant roughly 1.5 metres tall - though it could grow if more cans are collected! The Student Council has applied for £500 funding from the school budget for materials such as glue and soldering irons.

'We chose to create an elephant because its an endangered species, so it is raising awareness of how our behaviour can have an impact at so many levels. Its great to see students thinking about the rubbish they're creating as they collect the cans.' - said Mr Birnie.