The Big Light Project

“We all have a responsibility to learn and change. The Government has been encouraging us all to work towards a greener environment.  It is in our global interests to pull together to make a change. By recycling and being more aware of the need for better, more efficient lighting in our homes, schools and offices, we can make a huge impact”
www.thebiglightproject.co.uk

In May 2009 Recolight (a UK based lamp recycling company providing WEEE compliant fluorescent and mercury lamp disposal and collection facilities) launched the educational programme the Big Light Project. This programme is an initial pilot scheme aimed primarily at teaching school children between the ages of 8 and 13 about the history, basic functions and efficiency of artificial lighting and lamps and how and why to recycle them. The project aims to improve understanding among children through the specially designed character ‘Professor Bright, Expert in Light’, who communicates serious messages about the environment, climate change and lighting in a fun and engaging way.
Schools who have signed up to the project receive information packs containing material that is used as part of the teaching curriculum for Science, Design and Technology and PSHE (Personal, Social and Health Education) classes over a 10 week course. This includes instructions for science experiments such as making your own light bulb using either copper wire or a nail, jam jar and batteries; exercises to calculate energy savings through the implementation of CFL lamps in the home and many other exciting tasks.

The project is also supported by a comprehensive website that features an excellent animated film (which is worthy of being shown to anybody involved in lighting design) that provides download material for teachers, interactive teaching resources, useful key facts and which is currently hosting a competition for the children.

An initial acquisition period informed the design of the project, the first pilot phase of which is being implemented in schools in counties in the South East of England, not currently inclusive of Central London. There has however been such an early interest and positive response from schools all around the country and from as far afield as the highlands of Scotland that some schools from outside the pilot area have chosen voluntarily to participate in this first phase.

Currently 740 schools are participating in the project that equates to about a 16% uptake of all the schools that were first approached. In the autumn these schools will provide feedback into the project and it will be accordingly adapted before being implemented in northern English counties and thereafter the rest of the country.

The Big Light Project was the brainchild of Recolight commercial manager – Peter Lees supported by Chief Executive Nigel Harvey and Marketing Executive Corinnia Burke. It forms part of Recolight’s Consumer Awareness campaign that in turn forms part of Recolight’s wider remit.

A not-for-profit organisation, Recolight is a producer-led compliance scheme that specialises in the recycling of Gas Discharge Lamps (GDLs). This means that Recolight puts the processes in place to ensure the safe and easy disposal of fluorescent and mercury lamps, the most popular being Compact Fluorescent Lamps (or CFLs).

Recolight was established by the UK lamp industry in 2005 primarily for the purpose of operating a WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Compliance Scheme on behalf of Lamp Producers in the UK. Its operating model is based upon one developed by the European Lamp Companies Federation (ELC) - a European Trade Association for lamp manufacturers - although the implementation is different in each country, reflecting the different national implementations of the WEEE Directive EC2002/94.

I actually think that it is a ‘must’ for all lighting designers to visit The Big Light Project and find out more about it.

For further information about The Big Light Project or Recolight contact:
www.thebiglightproject.co.uk 
www.recolight.co.uk