Students at three of Bicester’s schools and colleges will compete against each other to promote the benefits of a ‘circular economy’ which encourages the continual reuse of raw materials and products.
Cherwell District Council has teamed up with sustainability organisation Bicester Green and Bicester Vision to host the Circular Product Competition as part of the international Disruptive Innovation Festival, which highlights the changing economy. The project has been sponsored by the Bicester to Oxford Collaboration, who are delivering the first phase of the East West Rail project that will ultimately deliver a rail passenger service from Oxford to Cambridge.
The contest will invite pupils from Bicester Community College, Cooper School and Banbury and Bicester College to make a tool from raw materials which must then be taken apart to create a new toy using the same resources.
Cllr Tony Ilott, lead member for clean and green, said: “This challenge is to encourage the students how we can reuse the materials from one item to create something new, rather than consistently draining sources of raw materials. So often when something breaks it is simply thrown away to go to landfill when in fact the materials could be reused to create something new, which is known as a circular product. By adopting the approach of reusing materials rather than simply starting again from scratch, this can help to create a circular economy which aims to reuse resources to the maximum and reduce waste.”
Over a four week period, teams of up to six pupils from each of Bicester’s education establishments will be provided with a starter kit of raw materials to create a tool at the Bicester Green workshop. This will be presented to judges from Cherwell District Council, Bicester Vision and Bicester Town Council before the team remanufactures the tool to create a new toy. The winning team will then be presented with a voucher for school equipment as well as additional time in the Bicester Green workshop. The winning group will be announced on November 5.
The competition will be listed as an event at the new Disruptive Innovation Festival, which encourages organisations, business and entrepreneurs across the UK to host events highlighting the changing economy. The festival has been funded by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and will run from 20 October until 14 November.
Presentations of the products will be filmed and can be seen on the EcoBicester website from mid November, and will hopefully be featured as one of the DIF events.
For more information visit www.thinkdif.co