Environmental Officer with KMK Metals Recycling, David Finane, Amy van den Broek and Catherine Cleary of Pocket Forests and Compliance Manger at KMK Metals Recycling, Eamonn Pidgeon, pictured with students from Mercy Secondary School Kilbeggan at a weee2tree workshop as part of a project co-funded by KMK Metals Recycling and Electronic Recycling.

KMK Metals Recycling launch initiative with local school during National Tree Week

Published: Tue 12 Mar 2024, 12:06 PM

Last updated: Tue 12 Mar 2024, 12:43 PM

During National Tree Week, KMK Metals Recycling and Electronic Recycling launched a project with Mercy Secondary School in Kilbeggan as part of the weee2tree initiative, which will see the planting of an area of native trees on the school grounds.

weee2tree, incorporated in 2022, was set up as a not-for-profit initiative, co-sponsored by the two waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling companies to help fund the development of native trees, recreational woodlands and other biodiversity programmes. In the future, the initiative will allow customers of KMK Metals Recycling to contribute financially to upcoming projects.

Mercy Secondary School was chosen by KMK Metals Recycling as an ideal launch point for its first weee2tree project, with a site identified on the grounds of the brand-new purpose-built school which opened at the start of the current academic year just down the road from KMK’s Kilbeggan facility. Electronic Recycling has already completed a successful weee2tree project with O’Connell Primary School in Dublin and has now come on board to part-sponsor the Kilbeggan Secondary School project.

A social enterprise, called Pocket Forests has been engaged to help facilitate the weee2tree projects. The aim of the group is to help communities to grow small native woodlands in urban areas. On Thursday, March 7, Catherine Cleary and Amy van den Broek from Pocket Forests went to Mercy Secondary School to carry out a workshop with students, teachers and members of the KMK Metals Recycling Environmental Compliance team. They demonstrated to students how to plant the trees, appropriate measurements for planting and provided information on the species and any maintenance that will be needed.

Seventy-five native trees and shrubs were planted, made up of 12 different species including: Downy birch, Crab apple, Hawthorn, Grey willow, Elder, Spindle, Guelder rose, Alder buckthorn, Hazel, Dog rose and Cherry.

Compliance Manager of KMK Metals Recycling, Eamonn Pidgeon, commented: “The workshop and planting of the native trees on the grounds of Mercy Secondary School was a great success and the teachers were delighted with how it all went. The students enjoyed it and were very active and involved with Catherine and Amy from Pocket Forests. It was a great learning experience. The 75 trees were planted and old cardboard boxes were placed around the tress to prevent grass growing while mulch was placed on top.

The school will now maintain the area monthly as part of their Green Schools role and monitor it throughout the year. It also provides an area for peace and quiet while surrounded by nature, in particular the birds who were already showing interest. The school’s woodwork teacher will also be building birdboxes with the students which will help attract even more birds to the area.”

Another workshop will be conducted in May and by then the trees will be established and will have some leaves and colour. This will involve more planting while also learning more about the trees and developing the area around them.

Teacher Shaun Horan, who is the Green Schools Coordinator for the school, said: “On behalf of Mercy Kilbeggan Secondary School, I would like to thank everyone at KMK Kilbeggan for organising Pocket Forests to visit our school. As our school is aiming to achieve its biodiversity flag, we were very grateful for a local business to support our efforts. Our students found it a very enjoyable experience. The students also stated that they grasped a better understanding of what biodiversity is and how they can help biodiversity in their local area of Kilbeggan.”

CEO of Electronic Recycling, Brendan Palmer, , added: “I am absolutely delighted to see our second weee2tree native tree planting project go ahead at Mercy Secondary School in Kilbeggan. Combining the environmental and biodiversity advantages of native tree planting with education. We are now looking forward to our customers, suppliers and the WEEE Industry generally coming on board to help fund the ongoing development of the weee2tree concept.”

Further details and updates about future projects can be found on www.weee2tree.ie.