A piece of trash art created by students in Bermuda has formed part of a presentation on marine litter at the United Nations in New York.

“Franklin the Turtle” was carried to the United Nations Environmental Programme’s (UNEP) Marine Litter Conference by the Swiss-based Race for Water team who visited Bermuda at the beginning of the month.

The team, who are visiting the world’s five oceans in 300 days to raise awareness of plastic pollution, met with Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB) executive director, Anne Hyde, while they were on the Island.

Ms Hyde showed Race for Water founder, Marco Simeoni, several of the trash art creations during their meeting. “He was intrigued as this was representative of what the students in Bermuda were learning about the ocean that surrounds them,” said Ms Hyde.

“He wanted to select one of them to give as a gift and display it at the UN Conference.

“A favourite piece called ‘Franklin the Turtle’ which has been a part of KBB’s collection since 2013 was chosen.”

“Franklin the Turtle” was created by Alaysia Swan, Khamanie Pitt-Nesbitt, Alziae Burgess and A’Vari Raynor-Hall from Prospect Primary School.

They were assisted by Britt- ney Ferreira from the Bermuda High School who was completing her IB project on marine debris. Every year students create art from beach plastics as part of a KBB environmental awareness and education programme.

Over the past few years KBB has also developed a series of primary school science lessons to help students understand the effects of litter on the environment.

On April 6 the sailors and Franklin headed to their next stop at New York City where Race for Water Foundation had been invited to present to the UN.

Franklin was given as a gift to Patricia Beneke, the Regional Director for North America of the UNEP.