Turning Festival Waste into Opportunity: Year 13 Students Rise to the Challenge

Last week’s STP sessions saw our innovative Year 13 students take on a creative sustainability challenge. Students were tasked with recycling a piece of common festival rubbish and transforming it into a practical, marketable product that could realistically be sold at festivals.

The materials available reflected the kinds of waste typically left behind at large events and included crisp cylinders, polystyrene cups, aluminium trays, plastic straws and wooden clothes pegs. Using these items, students applied design thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills to develop upcycled products that offered both function and environmental benefit.

The challenge didn’t stop at product design. Students were also required to create a social media campaign to promote their invention, building awareness around both their product and the wider issue of waste at festivals. This encouraged them to consider branding, target audiences and the role of digital platforms in driving social change.

The session highlighted students’ ability to think innovatively about sustainability while developing entrepreneurial and communication skills. By reimagining waste as opportunity, Year 13 demonstrated how small ideas can contribute to bigger environmental solutions.