Ember is the star of Wigan Council's recycling campaign

Ember has been encouraging people across the borough to do their bit and recycle more, recycle right.

And her efforts have not gone unnoticed with her being shortlisted in the Keep Britain Tidy Awards 2018 in the Young Litter Hero Award.

The five-year-old budding environmentalist from Wigan has captured the imagination of people far and wide after the launch of her campaign in September in which she urged people: “Putting things in your bin is easy.

“If you don’t recycle the planet will be dirty and it’s my planet too.”

The video went viral with more than 130,000 people watching the video and adding their voice to the #JoinEmber campaign.

Already actively involved in looking after her local community through organising her own litter picks, Ember contacted Wigan Council to raise her concerns about the damage rubbish being left was doing to the world.

And Wigan Council was delighted to be able to team up with Ember to spread her eco message to a wider audience about how simple it is to look after the environment.

Coun Carl Sweeney, cabinet member for environment, said: “It is an honour for us to have helped Ember make an impact with her heartfelt message calling on us all to do our bit to look after our planet not just for ourselves but for her and future generations. It is no surprise that the judges have been impressed by what Ember has achieved at such a young age.

“Ember’s passion for looking after the environment is a reminder to us all that what we do now will impact on future generations. We want to do all we can to pass on a cleaner, greener Wigan Borough to our young people.”

Wigan Council has also been nominated for Best Community Initiative for its community clean-up and waste amnesty in Leigh in September and the Big Spring Clean Award for mobilising more than 200 community, schools and staff volunteers to take part in clean-up and litter picks across Wigan Borough at the Keep Britain Tidy Awards. The winners will be announced in February.

To watch Ember’s campaign visit www.youtube.com/wigancouncil and show your support by tweeting using the hashtags #JoinEmber and #imjoiningember

To see what you can recycle visit www.wigan.gov.uk/recycling