Pupils with a passion for recycling were given the chance to see sustainable development first hand last week with an organised Bin Day.

St Helen’s Primary School in Wheathampstead held the initiative as part of its role as a recognised ‘Eco School’.

The scheme, which the school signed up to last September, encourages schools to commit to a sustainable lifestyle.

A team of designated ‘Eco-warriors’, formed of 26 pupils at the school, took control of the disposal of rubbish into different wheelie bins, with the aim of also increasing their classmates’ knowledge of recycling.

Katie Gifford, a reception teacher and designated eco-schools coordinator. “The children were absolutely fantastic, three weeks worth of rubbish was dealt with so well by the awesome eco-warriors and anything we couldn’t deal with was put into compost.

“The children found the whole experience a real eye opener,” she added.

Deputy Mayor Gill Clark, who attended the event, said: “The whole process of showing the children how recycling is done was really exciting; it was a brilliant way of showing them where things go.

“It’s tremendous when scientific processes can come with demonstrations, and it is certainly something I would have looked for when I was in school.”

As part of the scheme, the school was asked to come up with a slogan and ran a competition among pupils to find the best tag-line.

The winner was five-year-old Jack Styles who impressed his peers with his entry “Turn it off! Turn it down! Turn it into something new!”.

Last term the Eco-Warriors carried out regular checks on classrooms to ensure lights had been switched off at lunch and at the end of the day but Bin Day was the first school-wide event.