A group of seven South Ayrshire school pupils entertained some very important people recently within Glamis Castle – Mrs Blair, Mrs Bush, Mrs Putin, Mrs Martin, Mrs Berluscoin and Mrs Prodi.

The pupils, from Carrick Academy, gave a presentation on waste recycling to the wives of the G8 Leaders during a special “away day” from Gleneagles.

The team members were Colin McKellar S6, Amy Wallace S5, Kirsty Wilson S4, Sam Fleming S4, Gemma Scobie S3, Caroline Kennedy S3, and Eilidh Douglas, S2.

Earlier this year the students entered an inter-authority competition on the theme of “Our Earth Our Responsibility” in conjunction with Perth and Kinross Education Department.

Following their success the team were invited to go to the Concert Hall in Perth to be part of a live audience for a BBC production of “Question Time” for young people. Two programmes were broadcast, one live on 29 June 2005 and one that was pre-recorded on 30 June 2005, with all of the issues being discussed relating directly to the G8 summit.

The competition judges were so impressed with the presentation given during the competition that they invited them to repeat their presentation on recycling to the wives of the G8 Summit leaders.

Strict security surrounded the students visit to Glamis Castle, and on the morning of the presentation they travelled from Carrick Academy, accompanied by Val Adams, Principal Teacher Geography and Gordon Brown, Modern Studies Teacher to a special rendezvous point in Perth.

Everyone was then transferred to other vehicles, and taken to Glamis Castle to meet the wives.

The presentation they gave explained to their exclusive audience how important recycling is to limit damage to the environment, and to preserve it for future generations.

Convener of South Ayrshire Council’s Lifelong Learning Committee, Councillor Alan Murray, met the pupils at Carrick Academy on the morning of their presentation, and after wishing them good luck he said: “I am very pleased with the performance of the Carrick Academy students.

“To have done so well in the competition was excellent, but to have been selected to address such a high profile group of women was indeed an honour, and I am sure that it is an experience that none of them will ever forget.

“Recycling is important to everyone, and it is good to know that young people in South Ayrshire have such a great grasp of why everyone must join together and take a little time to recycle, which will make such a big difference to the environment.”

The Council has introduced a new household waste recycling scheme across South Ayrshire so that householders can reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. Information has been provided to all householders on the bests ways to recycle using the containers provided to them, and young people have also been learning about the important of recycle at school.

The students talked eloquently about recycling in South Ayrshire, during their interesting talk they clearly demonstrated the benefits of recycling, and here are some of the things they talked about:

‘Trees take in Carbon Dioxide, from cars, industry and rotting rubbish. They are the lungs of the world yet an area of forest the size equal to 20 football fields is lost every minute. That’s 54,000 sq miles – more than the whole of England! We need to stop this.’

‘Recycling used products takes less energy than making new ones. Recycling reduces the need for space to land fill. Recycling also reduces the amount of harmful gases such as methane, released into the atmosphere, which harm the ozone layer.’

‘From birth until being toilet trained a child will fill an average of 4,500 nappies. Millions of nappies each year go to landfill. However it can take from 200-500 years to decompose because our climate cannot facilitate the degradation, as temperatures are too low. I am sure you have experienced our changeable weather! Even if temperatures were higher burying our waste is not the answer. Isn’t this burying our head in the sand? Each disposable nappy needs one cup of crude oil to produce the plastics that stops those leaks!

“It may seem like we have a mountain to climb with recycling but we all know that if we all do a little we can change a lot.’

‘In some parts of the world many have no option but to live their life by recycling to survive. Some even have to make shoes out of old tyres or watering cans from discarded oil drums, even eco-toilets using human waste as fertiliser!’

Councillor Alan Murray is pictured with students and staff outside Carrick Academy prior to them leaving to attend Glamis Castle.