Green Team in action at Aims Games

Saving the world "one banana skin at time" is the motto of a team of environmental ambassadors from Otumoetai Intermediate stationed at the 2016 AIMS Games.

Dubbed the "Green Team" and dressed in lime green, the group of students are promoting recycling by encouraging people to put their plastics, glass, cans, paper, and general waste into the correct compost and recycling bins.

The recycling team was also collecting food scraps which would help feed local pigs.

The initiative was aimed at making the NZCT AIMS GAMES more eco-friendly and sustainable.

Green Team ambassador Kobe Howitt, 12, said the team's mission was to reduce the amount of waste heading to landfill.

"We want to make sure there is 60 per cent less rubbish than last year," he said.

"This is not just about reducing the amount of rubbish in our landfills but it's about saving the world one banana skin at time. That's our motto."

Fellow ambassador David Browett, 12, said it had been disheartening after day one of the recycling operation to find one of the bins full of coffee cups mixed in with general rubbish the next morning.

"It was disappointing, particularly as not all coffee cups can be recycled. People need to take a little bit more care when they throw away their rubbish," he said.

Green Team ambassadors are keeping a daily tally of the total rubbish collected at each AIMS Games venue and what percentage can be composted and recycled.

Facts about NZCT AIMS Games

Festival of sport for 11, 12 and 13-year-olds

Participants compete as an individual or in a team

against the best of their age in 21 different sports.

Since its inception in 2004 the numbers of competitors

has grown from 760 to more than 9300 in 2016