Monday afternoon saw the launch at Quay Arts for a new initiative between the Footprint Trust and organisers of Bestival.
Adopt-a-Bottle is a new scheme which will ensure that every school child under the age of 16 receives a free Footprint Trust/Bestival Foundation full-recycled water bottle.
What’s it all about?
The reason for the scheme? To educate kids and young people on the Isle of Wight about the importance of saving water.
Of course, the other benefit will be that it encourages the nippers to drink plenty of water, which is really good for concentration during class-time.
The bottles are eco friendly, natch, being made from PIR recycling (post industrial recycling), for those of you (like us) who have no clue what this means, apparently, all the materials are by-products from other industrial processes.
Er, what’s the Bestival Foundation?
You might be asking at this stage, “what is the Bestival Foundation?”
Yes, we’ve all heard of Bestival, we’ve even heard of Camp Bestival but what is the Bestival Foundation? (yes, we asked the same question when we heard about it).
We’re told that a new charity has been set up by the four Bestival co-founders, Rob & Josie da Bank, Ziggy Gilsenan & John Hughes. The charity’s aim is “improving Isle of Wight life through a series of exciting and groundbreaking initiatives.”
Rob tells us that he hopes Bestival will have a longer legacy than the three days of the festival here.
Apparently, a load wonga is going to be put aside each year to fund the foundation, with the core belief being along the lines of giving something back to the Isle of Wight, particularly the youth.
So how will a bottle make a change?
We all know that most pupils on the Island are already encouraged to bring a bottle for water into school (in many it is compulsory), so that’s not the only part of the initiative.
On top of that scheme, all schools will be invited to host free water-saving workshops, not only for the pupils but also for the teachers and other staff. After all, you’re never too old to learn something new and we learnt a few things after talking to Ray, the font of all eco-friendly knowledge.
At the launch we caught up with Ray Harrington-Vail (Footprint Trust) and Rob Da Bank (Bestival Foundation) to find out more.
So why not a bottle of water and sit back to hear what they had to say about it all
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/ray-harrington-vail-rob-da-bank-adopt-a-bottle.mp3]
For the full skinny on Adopt a Bottle visit the dedicated Website.
