Recycle Week: Blue Peter’s Mwaksy Mudenda at Oakdale School

Mwaksy popped into the school in South Woodford for Recycle Week along with the chief executive of the Waste and Resources Action Programme, Harriet Lamb.

The pupils showed their “deep passion for recycling” and working on eco-friendly practices “to help take care of the planet”.

Mwaksy, who became the long-running BBC children’s show’s 39th presenter during lockdown, has been involving her young audience like the Oakdale pupils in recycling and change of public attitudes in the community.

“Recycling is a core passion of mine,” Mwaksy said. “Identifying items that are commonly missed or forgotten from the recycling bin is a practice that is invaluable to teach our children as they look out for our planet.”

The school now gets £250 for sustainability resources.

Recycle Week, which runs until October 22, is raising awareness among children aged five to 11. This year is the 20th anniversary of the annual campaign.

Recycling sits firmly at the core of the school’s curriculum. Oakdale head teacher Carley Smith said: “We are committed to being ‘a voice for the planet’ to promote awareness about recycling waste and adopting eco-friendly practices to create a future where recycling isn’t just a habit, but a way of life where every plastic cleaning product, toiletry bottle, and food tin gets recycled. This leaves a cleaner, healthier planet for generations to come.”

The main theme of this year’s campaign is “the Big Recycling Hunt” for items that don’t usually make it to the recycling bin.

This is a nationwide search involving children to find “lost recyclables” that too often find their way into the rubbish bin. These include like empty aerosols, plastic product and toiletry bottles, pots and tubs, and food tins.

Recycle Week also helps the youngsters develop skills in communication and active citizenship.

It is now Britain’s largest national annual recycling campaign involving the public with local authorities and brands makers to “recycle more of the right things, more often”. Programme organisers are running campaigns to “motivate citizens to change their behaviour”.