Last Thursday, during the WasteServ EWWR Awards, Bishop's Conservatory Secondary School won the `Best Practice in Schools' Category among 20 schools around Malta and Gozo, with the jeans project, as well as being finalists in the Recycling Category with the Sponge Bob project.

Last summer the school organised a hands-on waste reduction project. It was spread over a period of 6 weeks in July and August. 43 students participated in this project.

The programme involved the use of old, unwanted jeans that were upcycled to produce new products. The students collected a large amount of old, unwanted jeans. Jeans was chosen because it is a very commonly owned product and just to produce one pair of jeans, 11,000 litres of water are consumed. Therefore the school wanted to create water consumption awareness among the students.

It showed them how precious water is and that we have the luxury of taking it for granted. The school said, that it wants to foster new thinking and create an awareness of the amount of water we use in everyday items and also so that young people come up with creative ways of re-using unwanted products.

"We also aim to push in the direction of more sustainable water management. Our students are the future household managers and if we instill this awareness at a young age we can achieve a water wise community."

The team produced around 150 products. The products varied from cushions to pencil cases. As a team they researched and brainstormed what products would sell and took into consideration the time and skill factors.

The girls learnt how to use a sewing machine as well as learning how to sew by hand. The school said that this will, in turn enable them to mend their own clothes instead of throwing them away. Another valuable lesson was the value of money with regards to time and effort.

"They realised that earning money requires a lot of dedication, time and hard work. The products were sold at Arkadia Shopping and all proceeds funded a primary education for children in Kasozi, Uganda," the school said.

Another waste reduction project was also held at the school. The Eko-Skola team produced recycling bins made out of recycled materials. The idea of the project was to avoid using ready made bins, to make students aware that even the containers in which they dispose of their own waste could actually be created through recyclable material.

One bin was made out of newspapers using the papier mâché technique to encourage students to recycle paper. This was made in the form of Sponge Bob to be more appealing to the students. The other bin was made out of used bottle caps to reduce plastic from the environment.

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