Carloway school wins top green award

Pupils and staff at Carloway Primary School in the Isle of Lewis, are enjoying their new green accolade: Yellow Pages Recycling Champions for Scotland 2009. They are also looking forward to spending their well-earned £1,000 prize money.

Carloway Primary School came top of the small schools category in the Scottish finals of the Yellow Woods Challenge, the environmental campaign for schools run by Yellow Pages working in partnership with the Woodland Trust and Waste Aware, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.

The school’s 26 pupils recycled 566 old Yellow Pages directories when the new ones were delivered last year – equivalent to a staggering 22.6 old directories per pupil. Runner-up of the small schools category was Sheilibost Primary School, also in the Western Isles, which recycled 17 old Yellow Pages directories per pupil.

Local authorities across Scotland ran the Yellow Woods Challenge, involving a total of 116 schools and 23,784 pupils. The recycling scores from all the local heats were entered into the Scottish finals where Bucksburn Primary School in Aberdeen triumphed in the medium schools category, and Muirfield Primary School, Aberdeen, scooped the large schools prize.

Carloway Primary School were delighted with their extra award and couldn’t believe they won an amazing £1000 for their school, to add to the £300 local prize money they received earlier for winning the Challenge in the Western Isles.

Sharon Mackinnon, Community Awareness Officer at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar said “It’s fantastic to see not one but two of our local schools recycling efforts being recognised in such a large National Environmental Challenge. Carloway School really deserved the £1000 cheque for all the hard work they have done this year and in previous years. Well done for an excellent achievement .”

Kimberley Watts-Fitzsimmons, corporate responsibility manager at Yell – the publisher of Yellow Pages directories, said: “It’s a great pleasure to reward the winning schools for their outstanding achievements. I’d also like to thank all the schools and councils in Scotland who always take the competition to heart – together you’ve made a massive contribution towards the environment.”

The Yellow Woods Challenge is undergoing a major strategic review and will relaunch in summer 2010 – for more information, visit www.yellow-woods.co.uk. For details of Yellow Pages recycling facilities, visit: www.yellgroup.com or call your local council.