Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to recognise some wonderful work being done by local students in Greenway. At Shelley Public School in Blacktown, a group of passionate year 4 students have been examining problems with plastic pollution in our environment and have shared their ideas and some potential solutions with me. Thank you to all the students for their insights, from composting and recycling projects to reducing plastic and packaging usage. I especially congratulate Eloise Viera, who had her work on the Great Pacific garbage patch featured in the online journal The Big Smoke.

At another local school, Team Infinity from Holy Cross Primary School Glenwood are participating in the FIRST LEGO League program, working on a LEGO robotics program to raise awareness about plastic bottle usage. As part of their project, they've shared some important facts with me: it takes 40,000 barrels of oil to make plastic water bottles for the whole of Australia; it takes three litres of water and one litre of oil to make a one-litre plastic water bottle; and it can cost $2.50 to make a one-litre plastic water bottle. I congratulate Team Infinity on their innovative project to help curb the use of plastic water bottles in Australia. I'm so proud of such wonderful projects being undertaken by students in my electorate and I commend their efforts to the House.

See this speech in context