Girls have designs on recycling

Remember the names of four Rotorua Girls' High School students - you may be using one of their household products one day.

The teenagers - Stacey Kerr, 15, Nicole Woodsworth, 16, Aimee Miller, 16, and Amanda Landers-Murphy, 16, are vying for the title of New Zealand's Young Designer of the Year after being selected as finalists for the competition.

The competition is the country's premier national design event for secondary school students.

Aimee is a finalist in the senior section of the competition's consumer products category while the rest of the girls have been named as finalists in the intermediate section in the same category. There are five finalists in each section.

The girls designed recycle bins as part of their graphics classes at school with the intention of entering the awards for the first time. They were all excited about being finalists in their first competition.

They spent a month designing their recycle bins, which had to have separate compartments for different materials. The design was based around a weekly collection and needed to be comfortably wheeled to the kerbside, mechanically lifted by the truck and each bin emptied into the appropriate waste areas. The focus was on convenience for the householder, ease and safety of use by the collectors, and convenience for the processors of the material collected.

All the girls would love to see their product made one day.

Head of Technology Greg Brooks who is also Stacey, Nicole and Amanda's graphics teacher said he wanted the girls to take part in the competition because it would allow them to tackle a technological design that could make a difference to the community.

The students are unsure as to what they want to do as a career but one thing is sure - it will definitely have something to do with designing.



The four budding designers will find out who wins the competition at the Young Designer Awards ceremony in Christchurch tonight.

Meanwhile, also part of the Young Designer Awards ceremony is the Bernina Fashion Awards. There are six students from John Paul College who will find out if they have scooped prizes in the competition tonight as well. They are: Elise Wescott, Nicole Aleman, Anna Squires, Jenny Lam, Kelsey Taft and Brooke Phelan.