BINMEN visiting a Ferryhill school have been getting a lighter load lately thanks to recycling children.

Pupils from Ferryhill School have been helping to keep the school's rubbish bins empty after cutting daily waste by nearly 60 per cent.

After taking part in the Global Action at School's project, students have achieved an impressive 58 per cent reduction in waste by introducing a series of recycling measures throughout the school.

Steps were taken to recycle paper, aluminium cans, and ink cartridges when an audit highlighted these materials formed a large percentage of the school's overall daily waste.

After analysing a breakdown of the results, extra bins were bought for each classroom, allowing students to separate these products from the rest of the rubbish and instead of going to landfill, the waste is now recycled by local companies.

A new audit carried out recently shows that the scheme has successfully reduced waste levels throughout the school.

Mel Cormack, technology teacher at Ferryhill School, said: "While the environment and recycling are part of the national curriculum, it's always been a subject covered by a text book.

"We've never had the opportunity to be involved at a practical level on such a large scale before and it's a great achievement to have cut waste so much in only 12 months, it's given our students an opportunity to see that recycling really does work.

"Having provided new bins and set up links with local recycling companies and organisations that reuse these materials, we won't just stop now that the project has finished.

"The framework is in place for the students to continue recycling in the future."

Meanwhile, a major environmental drive to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites from Darlington is proving a major success.

The scheme, established last month by Darlington Borough Council, saw recycling bins set up at the Drinkfield civic amenity site.

Council officers have reported 75 tonnes of garden waste and 20 tonnes of wood recycled in the first few weeks of the scheme.

It is estimated that 1,500 tonnes of material will be recycled every year, making up three per cent of the town's domestic waste