Minister applauds green champion

Kirstin Abela Caruana was keenly listening to her English teacher when Resources Minister George Pullicino popped his head through the classroom door.

"I immediately assumed he had come to speak to me. I had butterflies in my stomach and my heart was beating loudly," the eight-year-old said.

The minister decided to pay a surprise visit to Kirstin, at St Catherine's High School, Pembroke last week, after she collected 7,200 batteries from relatives and friends that were going to be dumped in the landfill.

The young girl had taken the school's battery collection campaign very seriously and the teachers remained speechless when she walked into school one day with 13 large bags containing the spent batteries. Her commendable move and determination to protect the environment was recently featured in The Times, which grabbed the attention of Mr Pullicino.

To spur her on, he showed up at Kirstin's classroom and presented her with books on the environment.

He did the same in the case of Samaryah Sammut, 12, from the same school, who collected about 2,000 batteries.

Kirsten said: "I plan to continue with this project. I want to protect the environment. I really hate it when I see people throwing things outside".

If disposed of incorrectly and dumped into landfills, batteries release toxic acids that damage the environment.

The campaign was organised by WasteServ, with the support of Fimbank, and the organisers themselves never imagined a little girl would take it so seriously.