Today’s students want robots to help

It’s always interesting to see a pattern emerging from the audience feedback of our Bin It! roadshows. This year, one such pattern is Robots. When asked how to fix the litter problem, novel ideas include:
• Create robots that come and automatically get the rubbish
• Make personal bins that walk around with you
• Produce robots that clear up the rubbish

As well as Robots, the Bin It! audiences, made up of 11 – 13 year old school pupils, cite increasing fines as a way of improving littering behaviours. Some would pitch fines as high as £1,000 per piece of litter.

Feedback during and after a show is the lifeblood of successful theatre-in-education which is why we ask for teacher responses to Bin It! as well as pupil feedback.

‘I thought the roadshow was great. It was a fun, energetic and funny way to put the message across which really helps to stick in the audience’s minds. We could see the pupils were engaged. Feedback from pupils was positive and they enjoyed the way it was delivered. The two people delivering did a great job and were extremely enthusiastic and great with the kids.’

The UK Bin It! schools roadshow has been performing in tours, twice a year, for over ten years, during which time there has been positive changes in responsiveness to the show’s messages from both students and teachers.

‘I have to say they were excellent. It was perfectly pitched at the age group with a good mix of humour and audience participation, whilst still delivering an incredibly important message about individual responsibility.’

The first tour for 2019 started in schools in Scotland, moved on to Cumbria, then visited schools in Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. The final week of the eight week tour visited schools in Sussex, visiting over 10,000 students. The second tour will kick off in the Autumn term after the summer break, and will be visiting schools in Norfolk, Bedford, Wales, Cornwall and the West Midlands.

Student from St Michael’s C of E High School getting involved in the live action roadshow

Today, when a top performance at the annual Glastonbury festival is delivered by Sir David Attenborough, the chief anti-litterer in the country, the topic of litter no longer lies neglected on pavements, in gutters, fields, on ocean beds, beaches, on mountain tops. The Bin It! schools roadshow speaks to the generations who will have to manage future environmental issues, including those of the price to pay for individual littering.

Mars Wrigley sponsors the UK school theatre-in-education tours as part of the company’s long-standing commitment to tackling litter issues.

Any schools interested in having the Bin It! performance at their school should call the Bin It! team on 020 8973 0040 or email a request to projectsupport@rapportgroup.com.