pressrelease

Contact: Cherry Hamson
Tel: 07802 929233

March 31st, 2008

A curriculum-linked competition which forms part of new Recycle for Africa resource materials for Key stages 2, 3 and 4 gives primary and secondary school teachers the opportunity to win a visit to schools in Malawi while visiting an environmental project supported by recycling more aluminium cans and foil in the UK.

The competition activity is to make a video about what helping the environment means to pupils, with two winning entries being shown by the teacher/film directors to schools in Malawi this October. While out there, the winners will also be asked to help film footage for a video about the environmental story in Malawi to show to schools in the UK, completing the aims of the cultural exchange.

The competition forms part of new resource materials which aim to provide an accessible introduction to sustainable development, based around a real situation in Malawi, where the impacts of climate change are already being experienced. The pack has curriculum links to citizenship, science and geography, as well as English, media and ICT.

The free resources are produced by not for profit recycling organisation Alupro, which funds a special project in Malawi to grow fruit trees in community nurseries as a means of tackling the three cornerstones of sustainable development: economic growth with social and environmental improvement. Fruit trees are valuable so will help halt deforestation in a highly vulnerable area, and the fruits will both aid nutrition and provide the basis for trade and small businesses.

Alupro is funding the start-up costs of the project, as well as training costs for grafting improved varieties on to local stock. The second part of the funding relates directly to the amount of aluminium cans and foil recycled in the UK, as Alupro has promised that a fruit tree will be grown for every tonne of aluminium recycled, with a target of 85,000 fruit trees. Recycling aluminium is 20 times more efficient than making it from the raw material bauxite.

Alupro executive director Rick Hindley says: "The aim of the project is to demonstrate to students how the energy and emissions saved when aluminium is recycled benefit people across the globe. We are delighted to give teachers the opportunity to come and see for themselves what is being achieved because people in the UK are recycling more. The message has to be: recycle every can, every time."

The materials and prize-winner trips to Malawi are sponsored by EMR, one of the world's largest metal recycling companies.

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Memo to Editor: Review copies of the Pack for Key Stages 3 and 4 are available on request from info@alupro.org.uk or telephone: 01527 597757

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