Monthly Archives: March 2012

A Bug’s Life – Greetings from the Litter Bug

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If you entered the Robinson Library over the last couple of days and walked past the Student Text Collection you may have been surprised by the sight of an oversize bug goggling at you from yellow pupils within green eyeballs. Or perhaps it was its snarling grim face that caught your attention?The metaphor may be perfect: The frightening picture of… the ‘Litter Bug’! Mainly litter has been used to create the bug.

A class of sixteen of Year 7 from Longbenton Community College let off its creative steam and turned litter from their school into art. They worked with Sara from Special Collections and Richard & Linda from the Green Group as part of the Special Collections Outreach scheme to local schools.

Litter Bug

Sara, Linda and Richard with the Litter Bug

Over two days the young “artists” planned and constructed two sculptures in total for their own school and the Robinson Library. The construction was limited to the final day, giving them only four hours to craft the sculptures from scratch, using recyclable litter from the library as well as materials from the House of Objects (HOO) at the Rising Sun Country Park.

The kids were amazed and surprised by how much litter currently comes together every day at their school (20 bags). In addition GBP 76,000 are annually spent on electricity. The “Litter Bug”-project sets a signal to decrease these numbers; and aimed at creating more eco-awareness among the youngsters.

Perhaps successfully: “The school could turn the projectors off after they’ve been used and install more recycling bins”, Georgia (11) suggested.

Climate Week enters its second round

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After its success last year, Britain’s biggest climate change campaign, “Climate Week”, enters its second round on Monday, 12th March 2012.

Climate Week offers the opportunity to show how we can combat climate change. It gets organisations, groups and individuals on board to create a more sustainable, greener future with plenty of events and actions going on throughout the UK.

Of course, the Newcastle Sustainability Team will be there, too!

To celebrate we are hosting a special event 12.00- 2.00 pm on Tuesday 13th March for all Newcastle University staff and postgraduate students. The event will be held in Devonshire Building, and gives the opportunity to find out more about what the University is doing to reduce its environmental impact, as well as what everyone can do in their own home.

The focus is not just the usual ‘we want to cut 10 % emissions by turning off the lights’ philosophy, but goes one step further by being a week where everyone is encouraged to help in a creative and fun way.

Sign up for an exclusive talk by Robyn Bradley from the Energy Saving Trust about how to save energy at home!
>>> Numbers are limited!! Please sign up and let us know which time slot you would like to attend. (Contact Hannah to get your sign up form: hannah.munro@ncl.ac.uk)

There is plenty of other stuff going on. So why not take a break from the office or your books and get involved with Climate Week!

Find out more about the UK’s biggest climate change campaign >> http://www.climateweek.com/

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Sustainability Team