David Hanschell
David Hanschell has set up a scheme that not only recycles surplus school equipment that would otherwise go to landfill, but also helps pupils in hurricane-ravaged Caribbean Islands. David, a teacher who comes originally from Barbados, first got involved after receiving an e-mail from a friend, the headteacher of Grand Roy Government School in Grenada, asking for help after Hurricane Ivan devastated the island in 2004. David contacted his local Argyll and Bute Council to see if he could obtain local schools’ surplus resources. He was already dismayed by the amount of furniture, school textbooks and computers being wasted each year (much of it ending up in the crusher), and felt they could be used to help children in the Caribbean. With the help of his local community, he was able to put together a container-load of equipment that was shipped to Grenada.
West Lothian, Fife and other Councils have now taken an interest supplying David with surplus school equipment. With no end in sight to the supply, he is exploring the possibility of sending some supplies to Malawi, hopefully engaging the Scotland Malawi Partnership in the delivery of educational resources to Malawi schools. David’s initiative has not only diverted tonnes of Scottish school equipment from landfill and helped hundreds of Caribbean schoolchildren, it has also made pupils, teachers and council staff look at second-hand school equipment in a different way - not as waste, but as a recycleable commodity.