Now that over 75% of Hampshire households have a home collection of recyclables - did you wonder what happens to your cans, newspapers and plastic bottles once they've been taken away from your door?

Young actors from the Romsey Youth Theatre did, so they approached Project Integra - Hampshire's partnership and strategy for dealing with household waste - to help them make a ten minute video all about it. The result is called 'Wastebusters - a look at rubbish and recycling in Hampshire'.

Integra's contractor, Hampshire Waste Services, helped the Romsey Youth Theatre and local company Storyboard Productions to film sequences at a site for composting green waste; a landfill site; and a Household Waste Recycling Centre. The video also shows what happens at Hampshire's MRFs - Materials Recovery Facilities - where recyclables are sorted by hand and machine before being 'baled' and sold for reprocessing into new products.

The budding young actors and actresses deliver shining performances as they calmly walk to camera, quoting facts and information about what happens to our rubbish, and ideas on what we can all do to reduce the amount that goes to landfill.

Wastebuster Yolanda Massey said of the experience, "I wanted to make people aware of what we can do for the environment. Working with a professional director and crew made the 'Wastebusters' video really exciting!"

Most Hampshire schools with pupils aged 8 to 14 will receive their copy of the 'Wastebusters' video from their local Recycling Officer. All of Hampshire's district and city councils are partners in Project Integra, and can give talks about recycling to schools, playgroups, Brownies and Scouts and community groups. They can also lend copies of the video to schools or groups who are keen to educate young people about 'the three Rs' - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

The 'Wastebusters' video compliments the 'Wastebusting in Schools' Curriculum Support Pack which Hampshire County Council and Project Integra produced in 1998, and which is still available to buy. Contact Karen Bridle in Hampshire County Council's Waste Management Team on 01962 847003 for more details about the pack.

The 'Wastebusters' video got a 'special mention' in the results of a recent competition, the 'Hampshire Millennium Community Video Record'. Members of the Romsey Youth Theatre have been invited to have a special tour around the Meridian broadcasting studios in Southampton.

23 March 2000

[Photo shows some of the 'Wastebusters' stars from the Romsey Youth Theatre, with War on Waste campaign mascot General Waste.]