New environmental initiatives by volunteer students at Roundhay School in Leeds have taken off after receiving financial support from Morley Glass through the Rotary Club of Roundhay’s ‘Interact’ scheme.
A team of students has come together to form an Interact Club at the north Leeds school, which is part of an international programme by Rotary designed to help young people take action to make a difference in their school and community. The Roundhay School Interact Club has already attracted 21 members who will be in Year 10 from September 2021.
As part of their work, the ‘Interactors’ will be getting involved in tree planting to increase urban forestation in their neighbourhood. The club will plant saplings paid for through a £500 grant from the Morley Glass GreenVision Fund, a unique funding scheme which raises money from flat glass recycling to support environmental improvement initiatives throughout West Yorkshire.
By encouraging the growth of more trees in the Roundhay area, the volunteers will play an active role in reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere and improve their local environment both aesthetically and ecologically. Further environmental improvements are also being delivered through ‘bug hotels’, made by the Interactors using post-use wooden boxes, also donated by Morley Glass.
Ian Short, MD of Morley Glass says: “It is tremendous to see so many young people getting involved with the Interact Club at Roundhay School to improve their local community. We’re really pleased to be able to support the student volunteers’ hard work through our GreenVision Fund, as well as by providing them with first quality wooden packaging boxes for upcycling. We can’t wait to see the improvements the Club members will bring to the Roundhay area.”
In addition to their local environmental work, the Roundhay School Interact Club is helping their school and the wider community in a number of other ways. These include collecting school uniforms that children have out-grown so that parents of children newly transferring to Roundhay School can take anything they need free of charge, and raising funds to support schools in Nepal and Sri Lanka to help get more children, especially girls, into education.
The Morley Glass GreenVision Fund was set up in 2019 as part of a pioneering glass recycling scheme in conjunction with Saint-Gobain Glass. This allows funds to be raised from the value of recyclable glass, which originates from the collection, sorting and first stage re-processing (crushing) of post-consumer glass removed by Morley Glass customers during window and door replacement projects.
To find out more about the GreenVision Fund and how to apply for a £500 grant please visit our Community page.
