York students and volunteers tackle 'Plastic Mountain' for the environment
A mountain of plastic tree protection guard waste collected over the last year has been gathered on the upper slopes of Kimberlow Hill.
A committed group of local citizens have unveiled a mountain of plastic tree protection guard waste collected over the last year on the upper slopes of Kimberlow Hill on York's University Campus East site.
Those gathered range in age from the 81 year old Tree planting veteran and Woodland Trust Champion Derek (Dek) Utley to the 30 11 year old members of a future generation from the Lord Deramore's Primary School in Heslington.
The Plastic Tree Guard Mountain is the latest stage of work being carried out by volunteers planting trees and collecting plastic guards, jointly coordinated by Gordon Eastham, York University's Grounds Manager, Derek Utley from the Tree planting group Treemendous, and Miki Storey from the local Environmental Charity John Lally International Foundation (JLIF).
The aim of the mountain is to highlight not only the role all Earth's Human Members can have in helping to improve and care for our jointly shared environments, but also to draw attention to the need for all of us to take responsibility for the health and care of all future generations to come.
Gordon Eastham told Greatest Hits Radio York: "Essentially what we're aiming to do is collect up all the plastic tree guards that we initially used when the woodland blocks on the University campus were planted 10-12 years ago.
"At the time there were around 70,000 trees and shrubs planted that were guarded with these shelters. We've tens of thousands of these guards and they've served their purpose as the trees have outgrown them. We're collecting them, putting them into bulk bags and returning them to the manufacturers to recycle into different plastic products.
"It's not something that we can do over a matter of months; we do it as and when we can with volunteers and University staff. It'll take several years".
Miki Storey said: "We're all citizens of the world and we have to think about future generations. It's okay having babies and small kids, but we've got to give them a future. It's up to all of us to step in, no matter how little we think we're doing. We've got to show the kids that they've got some sort of future".
Helen Smith is the Year 6 teacher at Lord Deramore's School: "We've been here to get involved in the tree project and recycling. We've done a lot of tree planting at school so we've brought our tree shelters up here to recycle.
"They're a great class and very enthusiastic. We are a forest school so we do a lot of outdoor activities and we've done many projects. It's absolutely crucial that we help the environment.
"We did a 'wish for the world', and without any prompting lots of the kids said they hope hedgehogs don't become extinct; that they want global warming to stop and they don't want the icebergs to melt".