Stoke Newington student wins environmental poster contest
Poster competition winner Rivka Cocker. Photo: Melissa Bocks
A local student from Stoke Newington School is set to see her artwork racing past as featured on buses across after the borough.
Rivka Cocker was chosen as the winner of a poster competition organised by the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) in partnership with seven boroughs in the area, Hackney amongst them.
Through its creative competition, the NLWA hoped to increase public awareness about the issue of waste prevention among young people and simultaneously spur local residents into cutting down on the amount of waste they produce.
Secondary school pupils across Hackney were invited to participate in the aptly named ‘Waste: the bigger picture’ campaign by creating a poster which put across their thoughts on the environmental importance of reducing waste production.
Winning artist Rivka explained the idea behind her piece: “I read about clothes swapping and was inspired to try it out. So, I invited some friends round who all brought along their unwanted clothes to exchange. It’s about being green and stopping landfill when you can reuse instead.”
“I heard about the poster competition and the two things clicked together. I used some photos I’d taken at the clothes swap to put together my winning poster,” she said.
The winning artistic creations from each borough are set to appear on the sides and insides of buses across North London in an effort to promote waste prevention.
Councillor Clyde Loakes, chair of the NLWA, said: “It’s great to see such creative posters that really show the waste prevention message. It’s important that we all take action to reduce our waste and the students’ posters show the small steps we can take to make a big difference.
The initiative handily coincides with the European Week for Waste Reduction, beginning on 20 November, which takes the fight against unecessary waste production to a continent-wide level.
It also sees the NLWA and the seven participating boroughs confirm a joint municipal strategy for waste management, aiming to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and to increase recycling.