A team of keen green Budleigh pupils are on a mission to rid their environment of unsightly rubbish and litter.
The eco-friendly youngsters are planning a beach clean on Friday (July 16) following a successful town green clean, last Friday.
Led by St Peter's C of E Primary School’s Eco Leader, Jemima Moore, the children have teamed up with the Budleigh Lions, Budleigh Town Council and the Marine Conservation Society to organise their events.
Ms Moore said they hoped to set an example through their efforts and involve the community in their clean-ups.
She explained: “The school's Eco-Champions have been engaged in a number of initiatives to make our school and community more eco friendly over past years. St Peter's was the first school in Devon to declare a climate emergency and has achieved Surfer's Against Sewage's 'Plastic Free Status.”
Ms Moore said the team had been restricted in what they’d been able to achieve since the pandemic struck due to the lockdowns and the school operating in bubbles.
However, now that life is returning to some form of normality, the school's Eco-Champions have been able to meet again and she and her colleagues felt comfortable organising the two outdoor clean-ups.
“Around 40 people turned out for the green clean last week and we are hoping that even more will join us for tomorrow’s beach blitz,” Ms Moore said.
“If you would like to join in, please meet us at the Lime Kiln end of the beach huts between 3.45 and 4.45pm.”
Ms Moore explained the children were passionate about their environmental efforts and found ingenious ways of raising awareness.
“We will sometimes use our twitter page to send pictures of the packaging we find to the company responsible, asking them about their commitment to reducing the waste that their products produce,” she explained.
Since returning this term, the Eco Champions have also signed up to the TerraCycle program and created a recycling area within the school in order to eliminate waste by ‘recycling the non-recyclable’ including pens, makeup containers, and cleaning product packaging.
The pupils collect items from home and school and receive money from the scheme in return.
Ms Moore said: “It has been wonderful to work collaboratively on the beach and green cleans this term and I hope that we will be able to go on to organise regular community litter picks and continue this collaborative community approach to looking after our environment.”