Recycling company Bywaters has hosted the launch of a pop-up book aimed at educating children about recycling and featuring the companys materials recycling facility.
The book, entitled See Inside: Recycling and Rubbish, is published by Usborne and is intended to engage children with an environmental message about the benefits of recycling household waste.
Over 60 dignitaries and children from the Nightingale Primary School in Hackney, east London, attended the launch event at Bywaters 250,000 tonne-a-year capacity materials recycling facility in Bromley-by-Bow last week (March 17).
The company has received funding to further develop the plant from the London Waste & Recycling Board (see letsrecycle.com story).
Speeches on the day were given by David Rumble, head of strategic development at Bywaters, John Glover, managing director at Bywaters and Alex Frith, author of the book.
This was followed by a short speech on climate change by two of the Nightingale Primary School pupils.
Bywaters was approached by Mr Frith in 2009 to help with the book after he was inspired to include the companys material sorting process.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Frith said: I cant stress how exciting it was to come here to the Bywaters MRF and see what they do with the commingled rubbish and they then put that out to reprocessors that end up making new products out of it.
Accurate
Mr Rumble praised illustrator Peter Allen, who recreated the companys MRF in the book.
Mr Rumble said: It is an accurate description of what we have engineered here. In fact, if you were an engineer you could copy our idea and make it work from the strength of the pictures.
During the ceremony, John Glover presented the attending school children with a copy of the book. He said he hoped the children would cherish the book in the way he had when handed a book to commemorate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II when he was a school child in Leyton.
The Nightingale Primary School children were driven into the plant to view how it works, however, they were not allowed to tour the site due to health and safety restrictions.
The book is part of publishing house Usbornes portfolio of childrens titles on environment and climate change, which aim to address environmental issues for a younger audience.
Waste expert Dr Margaret Bates from the University of Northamptons school of science and technology served as a waste advisor for the book.
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