A pop-up event in a Hamilton park offered passers-by a chance to become more invested in the environment through everyday activities.

Greenrock invited schools, businesses and organisations to gather in Victoria Park this afternoon to mark Earth Day.

Tented stalls offered information and products for people to maintain environmental sustainability in their own ways.

Warwick Academy pupils showed off a composting project that used worms to turn food waste into fertiliser.

“It’s worm tea,” explained Conrad Rossiter, aged 10. “You make it with molasses and water, and you put worm castings in a mesh bag.”

Warwick Academy’s primary school section started the project to help clear away fruit scraps such as banana peels and apple cores left over from breaks.

Rosalind Wingate, a science technician and sustainability co-ordinator with the school, explained that a research project showed the school produced about four pounds of fruit waste a day, which risked attracting flies and other pests.

According to the youngsters, fruit scraps were collected, frozen and blended into a pulp that was used to feed worms that were collected from the grounds.

The worms’ waste, or worm cast, was filtered form the soil using water and mixed with molasses for 24 hours to create ‘worm tea’.

Caleb Prior, age 10, explained that the bacteria in the worm cast was beneficial to plants as it offered them nutrients through the soil.

He added that this bacteria usually died off within a day, but that feeding it water and sugars from the molasses helped them grow into sustainable colonies.

The composting project has been in operation for a year and a half and has raised more than $200 in donations from pupils offering the tea as fertiliser.

Charlie Cooper, age 9, said the project was a great way to limit food waste.

He said: “We weighed all the food and we found about 7,000 pounds of food waste every year.

“If you put that into worm tea, then you can grow more fruit and more stuff and you’re not wasting it.”

Meanwhile, St George’s Rotary teamed up with CedarBridge Academy on a project to build and potentially monitor bluebird boxes.

Jordan Simmons-Trott, an educator at the school and the president of St George’s Rotary, said he hoped to lead the pupils in building 500 houses by the end of the month.

He said many of these bird boxes would be put up around the island, while others would be donated to other schools from the East End to as far west as Elliot Primary.

Mr Simmons-Trott added that he hoped to convince social studies teachers to encourage pupils to monitor the boxes over the years to track any potential population growth.

He said: “Maybe over the next five years, they would have their students check them and would be able to present some data on the bluebird population, God willingly, increasing over said amount of time.”

Mr Simmons-Trott added: “It’s a long-term investment, but it’s got to start somewhere.

“I’m very honoured to have some of my students at CedarBridge Academy and even members of St George’s Rotary volunteering their time and their equipment to get this project off the ground.”

Mr Simmons-Trott said he wanted to show people how easy it was to build bird boxes and encourage youngsters to get involved with crafts.

He said that youngsters often had plenty of ideas and creativity that he wanted to help foster in a productive way.

He added: “Culturally speaking, we tend to look as certain trades as beneath us, so I want to show them that something as fun as creating a bird box in a few years time could become creating your own chair or creating your own furniture.”

Several stalls were dedicated to services designed to encourage individuals to get into horticulture.

Just A Farmer, a husband-and-wife business dedicated to planting fruit trees and herbs, offered services to graft Bermuda oranges onto other citrus trees.

Sinae Symonds said the oranges had faded in popularity over several decades and that she and her husband, Malachi, hoped to bring it back to relevance.

She added: “It’s good for food security and for getting outside. It is important to know where your food comes from.”