Jack Redmond, Miacha Connolly, Eva Luchian (3 Holly) and Cody Williams (1Holly) were accompanied by Ms. Aine Sheeran and Ms. Sarah Walsh to the 12th Annual "Neat Streets" conference in the Aviva Stadium today (Tuesday 24th January). Neat Streets is an anti-litter programme for secondary schools. ECC are one of only 31 schools nationwide participating in the programme.
To start the day, triple Olympic sailor Annalise Murphy recounted her experiences with litter pollution in our oceans. She identified findings from an experiment she conducted while completing a 9 month race around the world on the "Turn The Tide on Plastic"; microplastics were identified in waters from every part of the globe, including waters off Antarctica.
Next, the students had an interactive session where they met with students from other schools. They discussed waste and litter issues, had a walking debate, and played a kahoot quiz. ECC won the Kahoot quiz (of course 💪) and won 'Neat Streets' logo hoodies for our school!
The next guest speaker, Kevin Murphy, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of '2GoCup' talked about Circular Economy, which was the theme of the conference this year. His innovative use and return cup is cost effective and sustainable.
Finally the students had to develop a business idea from a repurposed item they use everyday. They pitched ideas to reuse and repurpose old tyres, schoolbags, headphones, books to name a few. Our ECC students repurposed old bikes for homeowners or business owners to renovate their living and work spaces. They proposed that the frames of old bikes could be melted down and used to make furniture, embracing the idea of the circular economy!
We are very proud of our Green Schools representatives who attended the conference today. A special thanks to Ms. Sarah Walsh and Ms. Aine Sheeran who accompanied the students on their trip to Dublin today.