Hastings Secondary College Westport Campus will soon be creating prosthetic hands made from collected, discarded plastic.
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Marine science teacher Lloyd Godson and the school entered the NSW State Government's My Community Grant program to help fund the purchase of a shruder machine to transform waste plastic into valuable resources which will change the way people think about plastic.
The machine was created by a school teacher who wanted to teach and help students make a difference to the environment.
"Precious Plastic is a global community of over 40,000 people working towards a solution to plastic pollution and as a marine studies teacher that is something I am very passionate about," Mr Godson said.
"This project will engage students and the general public to help fight the war on plastic waste. We are wanting to work with local environmental groups such as Coastal Warriors and other community groups to make this a whole of community project.
"The idea is that by transforming waste plastic into valuable resources it will change the way people think about plastic and how they consume it."
Hastings Secondary College Westport Campus were successful in receiving $81,800 in funding.
Mr Godson said students get to use their STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills to manufacture valuable products from materials that we currently consider to be environmentally destructive waste.
"The Shruder is a dual purpose, compact, industrial shredder and extruder, purpose built for recycling of used plastics," he said.
"Students will shred single-use plastic items, which can then either be on-sold to plastic recyclers or made into new products.
"One example of this is the prosthetic hands but my plan is for this to be a student lead project and they will come up with what they want to create and we will work with community groups and mentors to make that happen."
In the Port Macquarie electorate Revive Lake Cathie were successful in receiving $25,000 for water testing equipment and Hastings Public School received $140,000 to build a covered outdoor learning area.
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