Trealaw Primary School are the winners of this year’s Rhondda Cynon Taf Council Climate Christmas Cover Challenge.
All primary schools across the County Borough were invited to create festive artwork based upon the theme of how we can all help protect our planet and tackle climate change this Christmas. All entries had to be either handmade using recyclable materials or created digitally.
Rhondda Cynon Taf Council is committed to tackling climate change and encouraged its young learners to take part in the ‘Christmas Challenge’ – and amazing artwork entries were returned to the judging panel.
Councillor Rhys Lewis, Cabinet Member for Stronger Communities, Well-being and Cultural Services, said:
“The standard of entries was extremely high and I would like to thank all our young artists and designers for being a part of our Climate Christmas Cover Challenge.
“We all face challenging times ahead as temperatures continue to rise all around the world, and we are all too familiar with adverse weather conditions in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
“Congratulations to Trealaw Primary School on creating the winning entry and also to all the runners-up. There are over 240,000 people living in our County Borough - together, we can all make a difference, no matter how big or small.”
The judges were impressed with the standard of all entries, and Levi Blaken, of Trealaw Primary School, was eventually selected as the winner. The school will receive a School Environment Kit, worth around £400, and a £50 Gardening Voucher for the school. The winning entry will also be used as the Council’s official cover image on all its social media accounts over the festive season.
The runners-up, each receiving a £50 Gardening Voucher for their respective schools, are: Llwynypia Primary, Penpych Primary, Tonyrefail Primary and Llanilltud Faerdref.
The Council is continuing to work towards its goal of becoming a Carbon Neutral Council and County Borough by 2030 and has already made progress towards achieving this commitment to meet and contribute to global, national and local targets.
The Council already purchases 100% of its electrical energy supply from renewable energy sources.
All street lighting across the County Borough, around 29,700 units, have been converted to LED or equivalent resulting in a 75% reduction in the energy used since 2015/16. The Council has also installed 108 Solar Panel arrays across Schools and Corporate Buildings, totalling 1.7MW.
Adding to this, the Council is already on course to meet the Welsh Government’s recycling target of 70% for 2025 and has increased its recycling target to 80% by 2025
Over 11,000 tonnes of food waste is also collected from RCT households every year and recycled at the Biogen site and converted into energy to power the equivalent of over 1,000 homes.
Posted on 22/12/2021