It’s that time again…time to put your thinking cap on and enter the 2018 Young Reinventor of the Year competition! It’s free to enter! There are great prizes! And there’s loads of time to register, plan and get started with cool classroom ideas or at-home projects. Entries are due 22 October 2018.

Some see waste, others see opportunity.

Re-inventing rubbish is the aim of the annual Young Re-inventor of the Year competition, held in WA to celebrate National Recycling Week (13–19 November).

Want to know which inventions came out on top in 2017? Scroll down!

 

Young reinventors of the year

Last year, more than 350 young West Australians jumped at the chance to take rubbish and turn it into some very handy things. More than 130 re-inventions were judged on their usefulness, good looks, use of rubbish, and their ability to bring a garden to life.

The theme in 2018 is keeping our waterways clean and conserving water.

So, who were last year’s winners…. Drum roll….

Sitting pretty

Benn Longbottom (14) and Bianca Peachey (13) of Donnybrook District High School won the high school prize in 2017.

“We invented a 44-gallon drum bench set for the garden,” says Bianca. The pair used an old wooden pallet and empty drum. “We pulled the planks off the pallet and used them as the seat and back rest. Apart from the spray paint, all our resources were recycled,” Benn says.

“We now realise how important it is for everyone to minimise their impact on the environment, to ensure we aren’t living in a rubbish dump.”

Standing tall

The 2017 primary school prize went to Boyanup Primary School’s preprimary class. “We created a scarecrow by filling an old pair of overalls with straw and then put a bucket on top for his head,” explains Max. The class also used old jeans to make pots for plants. Ivy says: “The hardest bit when we filled up our jeans was [when] Miss Lewis forgot to sew up one leg so the gravel kept falling out.”

“Each child has ownership of one pair, with the principal’s name on the adult pair,” says their teacher, Marion Lewis.

Rust in peace

Josiah Truss, 17, was commended for his 2017 project, which recycled a toilet, wooden boards and plastic buckets to create a raised garden bed, complete with worm farm. “I thought it looked a bit like one of those old-fashioned graves you see in the pioneer cemeteries, so I painted “Rust in peace” on the front boards,” Josiah says.

Dog-tastic

Liam, 13, won the 2017 community division with a dog he made using scrap metal, golf balls, a paint roller, a grass hula skirt, and a door handle. The dog is a memorial for Liam’s pets. “I really miss them and wanted to use this opportunity to create a lasting memory of them in our garden,” he says.

Apple tree art

Zy Child, 9, won the 2017 community division with a mosaic made from bottle caps. “I live in Coral Bay WA and this is where the outback meets the sea, so our landscape is pretty barren with not much colour. My idea of lush green grass and an apple tree is to inspire the garden in these harsh conditions,” he says.

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You can enter as a classroom or as an individual.

Either way, there are loads of cross-curriclum activities and outcomes: think STEAM and STEM, Science, Arts, Technologies and Human Society and its Environment.  There are links to the Western Australian curriculum here.

All entrants will receive a participation certificate and are in the running to share in $3000 in prizes.

This article first appeared in Crinkling News.