My World My Home Creating tomorrow’s environmental leaders

My World My Home students at NewVIc Sixth Form College in Newham, East London felt that there was a considerable amount of litter on the ground, and one of the main reasons for this was the lack of adequate, clearly labelled recycling bins and recycling practices. Students decided to build support for change via a digital petition, which got over 200 signatures. This was subsequently shared with college leaders, who were very supportive of improving the recycling options and practices.

Following this, students met with college leaders who were optimistic to discuss options and how to improve recycling practices. This resulted in college leaders agreeing to purchase new colour-coded recycling and general waste bins, alongside a pledge to work closely with the student body to improve recycling practices across the sixth form, something that had never been done before!

My World My Home students at Nottingham College took action to defend the right to a healthy environment by joining Friends of the Earth’s national campaign. Concerned about sewage pollution and Severn Trent’s failure to prioritise communities and nature, students used Friends of the Earth's petition to raise awareness and build support. They organised creative sessions to design posters and produce zines highlighting the impact of sewage pollution, which they showcased at campaign stalls across both the Basford Campus and the City Hub.

Across these events, they collected nearly 300 petition signatures and invited students and staff to fill in postcards to MPs. Students met with college leaders to ask for their support. As a result, the college committed to sharing the petition on Student Net and Staff Net, raising the issue during a staff CPD day to build awareness, and inviting local MPs to meet with students to discuss the right to a healthy environment.

Working across 2 Leeds City College campuses, young people found that air pollution and buses were the top two environmental problems amongst the student body. The groups did some research and found out that recently the West Yorkshire mayor had committed to "bus franchising", a way for local government to have more control over bus services in their area. They saw this as an opportunity to influence how buses are run in Leeds, so created a visual petition to show how many students wanted change. They created cartoon characters that students could sign and put onto some big buses that students had also designed.

The group gathered over 400 signatures. After a few months of trying to secure a meeting with the mayor with no success, the group got together and walked down to the mayor’s office to hand in their petition and ask to speak to someone who could help. They did it! Three members of staff came out to speak to the students, including the Head of Transport, who committed to having a proper meeting with the group. A few weeks later, after a lot of preparation, the group sat down with all 3 staff members and presented their demands: more reliable, cleaner and greener buses, and extending the disabled bus pass to work at peak as well as off-peak times. They had a productive meeting and are now waiting for a formal response from the mayor’s office. Watch this space.

Students in NWRC were concerned with water pollution in the local area, due mainly to increasingly intensified agricultural processes and extractive industries. After speaking to fellow students and staff in the college, My World My Home participants realised that there was a huge problem with single-use plastic water bottles being sold by the college.

A lack of available water fountains was also reported to them, so they met with the sustainability manager to discuss the situation. They found out that the single highest revenue stream of the college canteen was the sale of bottled water, so there was a conflict of interest in investing in water fountains. Nevertheless, they secured the support of the Sustainability Manager and they managed to get two new water fountains with in-built filtering systems installed before the end of the academic year.