An eight-year-old 'sustainability superstar' from Dunmow has been named the junior winner of the Rotary Young Environmentalist Competition 2024.
Nicole Powell, who is a pupil at Felsted Primary School, impressed the competition judges with her project 'Munchie & Crunchie - Less Waste at Lunchie', which addressed the environmental impact of food packaging waste at her school.
After extrapolating data from all pupils, Nicole found that during their time at primary school, more than one million pieces of rubbish generated from packed lunch food packaging could end up in landfill.
She then took proactive steps to encourage her fellow pupils to adopt a packaging-free lunch, demonstrating how reusable containers could reduce the need for single-use packaging and significantly lessen the school's damage to the environment.
Nicole also identified which types of packaging could be recycled, and was responsible for implementing a new recycling system at Felsted Primary, complete with new recycling bins to ensure proper waste segregation.
Neil Whiting from Dunmow Rotary Club, which sponsored Nicole's entry into the competition, said: "Nicole’s dedication and practical approach to tackling food packaging waste is truly inspiring, and sets an example to us all.
"Her project highlights not only a critical environmental issue, but also demonstrates the power to drive impactful change within our communities."
The theme of Rotary's Young Environmentalist Competition for 2024 was waste minimisation, and encouraging young people to develop innovative solutions to tackle one of society's biggest environmental challenges.
Young people up to age 17 were invited to enter either as individuals or in a team.
Nicole won in the individual, junior category, which was for children up to and including age 10.
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Each entry went through a local stage, followed by district heats and then the national final.
The competition aimed to encourage young people to interact with the environment, address serious environmental issues, develop and explore solutions to the issues, and explore, investigate, research and undertake an environmental sustainability project.
Other Rotary competitions for young people are the Young Photographer Competition, the Young Writer Competition - which was won by Essex girl Alisha from Burnham-on-Crouch, and the Young Filmmaker Competition.
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