As consumers, everyone is part of the ever-increasing pollution problem, but San Andrea School students believe in solutions – they have teamed up with recycling companies in search of reusable textiles.

The school has launched an online portal, http://refabmalta.com , hoping to attract other schools and local councils to join the Refab Malta project, a textile recycling initiative.

Some 84 per cent of all household waste can be recycled and the students, under the guidance of IT teacher David Micallef, have started reducing their ecological footprint by collecting clothes, shoes, curtains, handbags and other textiles to be either reused or recycled.

The textiles are sorted locally. Those in good condition are given to charities while the rest shipped to Northern Ireland to be recycled.

The team has also produced a short film in English and Maltese – Recycling Textiles Makes Sense – directed by a former San Andrea student Matthew Muscat Drago, which tells the story of preserving biodiversity by recycling textiles.