Green team keeps lid on rubbish

ENVIRO CHAMPIONS: Green Team ambassadors Siddhartha Gurung, Luka Matic, Alyssa Gaensicke, Kobe Howitt, David Browett, and Nina Miedema at AIMS Games.PHOTO/ANDREW WARNER

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 in 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 the 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 recycling operations 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 could be composted and recycled.