A STUDENT on the way to university will be leaving behind her legacy as part of a grassroots youth movement to tackle environmental issues.

'Our Bright Future' is a campaign let by The Wildlife Trusts with the aim of making significant societal and environmental improvements in local areas.

With £3.3m funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, the campaign is made of up 31 projects that bring together youth and environmental sectors to generate a movement for the environment.

One of the projects is 'One Planet Pioneers', led by Middlesbrough Environment City, and is a partnership with Tees Valley Wildlife Trust and ACTES Trust.

The project has been delivering taster sessions, events and activities to young people across Middlesbrough such as youth panels, community growing projects, conservation and sustainability activities, Forest School and John Muir awards.

Middlesbrough student Banna Faidulla, 18, has been involved as a volunteer on the One Planet Pioneers Project since Spring 2018 when she began a campaign within her sixth form, Macmillan Academy, to reduce the amount of single use plastics used by students in the canteen.

During her campaign, Miss Faidulla visited other schools in the area to talk about her movement and encourage others to take similar actions.

Now having finished her A-levels, she will be moving out of the area to study Geography at university but leaving behind a campaign within the Academy to continue focusing on reducing the use of plastics.

She said: “This project has helped me make a difference to our local community as it’s enabled us to pinpoint the problems that we felt were significant, rather than being told what to do.

"It’s very empowering to be trusted to deliver a campaign and make decisions on our own and we’ve learned many skills along the way.

" Seeing students in school and college using our bottles is incredible as it shows how everyone is coming together, and how collectively we can lessen our own plastic waste within such a large institution.”