Lord Speaker's Competition - Winners Announced!

The winners of the Lord Speaker's competition for young people 2008,  have attended the winners’ day at the House of Lords and presented their findings to a special sitting of the House of Lords Science and Technology Sub-committee on Waste Reduction.

The winners were:

Key Stage 3: William Lewis and Harry Roffey from Bodiam Manor School for their in-depth investigation into why plastic cannot be recycled in their local area, quizzing the local council and supermarket in the process. The team presented their findings in a PowerPoint presentation.

Key Stage 4: Josie Palmer and Katie Leivers from Ridgeway School presented an examination of what could be done to reduce waste using an eye-catching collage. To really bring the message home, the team raided senior staff's wastepaper bins and got creative with what they found.

Key Stage 5: Mark Malik, Alice Jones, Daniel Beech, Sultana Akhtar and Matthew Jones from Joseph Leckie School set themselves the challenge of coming up with an innovative solution to the waste reduction problem and the result was a reusable shopping bag scheme. By using recycled materials and a community-centred approach, this social enterprise looks set to rid their community of plastic carrier bags.

The competition, run in partnership with the Hansard Society's Citizenship Education Programme, asked young people to submit their ideas on how to reduce the amount of waste the UK produces. Over 87 teams of young people submitted their ideas in the form of short films, animations, collages, essays, research papers and presentations.

Entries covered issues including the role of councils in recycling and the contribution of big business and were then judged by an eminent panel including the Lord Speaker and the Chairman of the House of Lords Sub-Committee on Waste Reduction, Lord O’Neill.

While the winners presented their findings in person, every entrant to the competition will have their voice heard by the Sub-Committee as a report compiling the entries has been submitted to Lord O’Neill for response.  It is not just the winners who will have their views heard as the Hansard Society have compiled a report based on all entries which Lord O’Neill will respond to.