A TEEN from Wellington has been announced as the winner of Somerset West and Taunton Council’s (SWT) ‘Recycling On-The-Go’ school poster competition.
Evelyn Stead, 14, from Court Fields School has won the competition launched at the end of last year to encourage more recycling and responsible waste disposal with the introduction of 130 new public bins.
In addition to waste, dog droppings and cigarette butts, the configuration of the new bins allows plastic bottles and aluminum or tin cans to be deposited separately, thus facilitating “Recycling On-The-Go” during your movements in the neighborhood.
The competition aimed to inspire high school students to raise awareness of the new bins within their local communities and promote their use through the creation of an informative and engaging poster.
The submissions received were evaluated by a panel of council officers and advisers, and the winning design was announced at a presentation ceremony held in Wellington Park last Friday (July 15).
The ceremony was attended by Court Fields School staff, including Evelyn’s art teacher, Rachael West; the Mayor of Wellington, Councilor Mark Lithgow; Executive Members for Climate Change and Culture, Councilors Dixie Darch and Caroline Ellis; and SWT climate change staff Sue Tomlinson and Franc Parreira.
Evelyn said: “I am inspired by nature. I have experienced its turbulent changes due to global warming throughout my life and it made me feel that I needed to raise awareness of how we can stop these negative impacts on our environment.
“I created my collage using images of landfills and tearing sections of those images. I arranged the fragmented images on a sheet of paper to make a background.
“I then printed the correct image of the new recycling bin and placed it on top of my background. Then I cut letters out of paper to construct my title and used acrylic paint to make it green. Finally, I repeated this process for the recycling sign like the “o” in “go”.
Rachael said: ‘It was exciting for our Year 9 students at Court Fields to have a live briefing on something close to their hearts, ‘the environment’. When Somerset West and Taunton Council launched the ‘Recycling On-The-Go’ competition, our students got to work creating many varied and creative ideas for the council poster.
“We are very proud of our student Evelyn Stead’s victory, especially as several schools across the county participated. We felt her entry was very imaginative and conveyed the message superbly, and it will be great to watch her work and move.
During the ceremony, Councilor Darch presented Evelyn with a check for £500 for her school along with her poster, now mounted and framed, which will be used in SWT communications to promote the ‘Recycling on thumb”.
Cllr Darch said: ‘It was a real pleasure to meet Evelyn and present her framed poster and £500 donation to the school. His artwork was chosen from a strong set of entries – it is visually striking with the use of mixed media and alerts us all to the importance of recycling and environmental care.
“It’s really encouraging that young people like Evelyn are so committed to environmental issues and art is a great vehicle to get this important message across.”