Children help parents reduce waste by 10% and are rewarded with reconditioned bikes

Local school pupils Libby Watson, nine, and Rhiannon Cochren, five, at The Bike Station to collect their prize bikes | pic: Changeworks

Local charity Changeworks awarded 13 pupils from schools and nurseries across south Edinburgh with free bikes for spreading their waste-aware message.

The Be a Hero at Home campaign was part of Waste Free Edinburgh, a Changeworks project helping householders in the south of the city to reduce their waste.

Storytelling sessions, workshops and assemblies were run by Changeworks' waste education service in 14 schools and nurseries. They encouraged pupils to involve their families in activities to reduce waste at home.

As you'll see from the video below, we met up with some of the excited winners at The Bike Station in Causewayside as they collected their reconditioned prize bikes.

Sandy Moir, dad of Robert in the video above, got in touch to let us know what happened after we left. He said:

"When you asked Robert about his bike, he did say it was great but it didn't have any peddles. Later on we chatted with James Orr, one of the mechanics at The Bike Station, and asked him really nicely if he could magic up some pedals - and he did! "So Robert will be collecting his bike tomorrow after a pretty amazing service from The Bike Station - not just having won the bike, but having it specially converted just for him!"

Elizabeth Parker, winner Libby Watson's mum, said:

"I remember the day Libby rang from school, I just heard 'bike, photograph, competition.' "She was so excited she ran all the way home. We already do the recycling and donate to charity shops but seeing the Be a Hero at Home leaflet made me realise there was much more to it. "I hadn't known about composting so I sent away for the information and I've even changed the way we do packed lunches."

The 13 winners were from the following schools and nurseries: St Peter's RC primary, The Spinny NS, Craigower Park PS, Gilmerton Primary, Liberton NS, Princes Elizabeth nursery, St Catherine's RC primary, Greenbank pre-school, St Leonard's NS, High School Yards nursery, Hope Cottage NC, James Gillespies primary and South Morningside primary.

As part of Waste Free Edinburgh over 12,000 South Edinburgh homes were visited, 4,000 conversations with householders held and 2,000 people taking part in the challenge.

The booklet below has tips to help all householders to reduce their waste by 10%. You can zoom in on the pages using the tools at the bottom.