Students learn how to make a difference at Maitland Environmental Youth Forum 2023

Students enjoyed a range of information sessions and workshops all on different ways to make a difference for the environment at the event, held at Gillieston Heights Community Hub.

Hosted by Maitland City Council, students had the opportunity to hear from representatives of Hunter Resource Recovery, Hunter Water, Solo Resource Recovery, Elite Power Group and different council departments.

On arrival they received colourful bags made from recycled council event flags, featuring a recycled notepad and pen, USB drive with summaries of the workshops and recycled water bottles.

The students each left with a tree native to Maitland to plant at home or school.

Maitland Deputy Mayor Mitchell Griffin told students at the beginning of the day he was sure they would have a great day learning about the environment and what they could do to make a difference.

"Today will provide an opportunity to talk about the environment and learn new skills and knowledge of ecological issues we have across our city," he said.

"This forum will also provide the opportunity for you to express your thoughts on the local environment and some of the things we're doing across the city of Maitland.

"We're a big city and we have 94,000 people at the moment who live in Maitland so the environment is a very important part of what we do here in our city.

"Some of the things we're looking at at the moment as a council is we're doing lots and lots of tree planting.

"Our team at council has started to identify those very important nature corridors so all of our wildlife can move freely across our city."

In other news:

Students broke into small groups and attended different workshops throughout the day.

Hunter Resource Recovery representatives taught them what happens to recycling once its collected from their yellow bin, and what can and can't be recycled, while Solo Resource Recovery representatives taught them what can and can't go in their green bin.

Hunter Water taught students about where their water comes from, and Stockland Green Hills explained the importance of solar panels and other environmentally friendly initiatives.

Representatives from council got students thinking about the importance of the estuary and what they'd like to see in the Hunter River, and at another station taught them about weed management.

Schools in attendance were Hunter Valley Grammar School, Telarah Public School, St Patrick's Lochinvar, Gillieston Public School, St John the Baptist, Maitland Public School, Lochinvar Public School and Miller's Forest Public School.