Two Saltus Grammar School students are learning about the grittier side of Bermuda life , as key members of Keep Bermuda Beautiful (KBB).

Matthew Witkowski, 16, and Michael Mello, 17, recently became KBB's youngest-ever board members.

"We needed community service hours for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme and showed up for a couple of clean-ups," said Mr. Witkowski. "We stuck with it after we finished our Duke of Edinburgh hours."

Rich Lathan, KBB executive director, said the two young men recently directed one of KBBs biggest clean-ups in recent years.

"They were helping to clean-up the canal at Dutton avenue which was really bad," said Mr. Lathan. "We had 35 volunteers show up including students from Whitney Institute Middle School, T.N. Tatem Middle School, and Warwick Academy."

The job was big enough that it required help from Vector Control.

"They do rats and mosquitoes and all kinds of pests," said Mr. Lathan. "They gave up their time to come out and help."

Mr. Mello said it was very satisfying to see an area cleaned up within a matter of hours.

"We go to a wide range of areas," said Mr. Witkowski. "We did a marine clean-up one year where we had to jump into the water and try and remove stuff from the bottom. We really enjoyed that."

During clean-ups they pull up all manner of waste including car batteries, and animal carcasses.

"The most common type of trash that we find would definitely be beer bottles," said Mr. Mello.

Mr. Witkowski said plastics are the easiest thing to pick up.

"From our perspective, we can see it clearly because it is often brightly coloured," he said. "It doesn't get buried into the dirt as much as glass and it floats."

Mr. Witkowski and Mr. Mello are often helped on clean-ups by a friend from Mount Saint Agnes, Thomas Pew.

"We have had one or two friends come to single clean-ups," said Mr. Witkowski, "but everyone has their own thing that they like to do."

He thought the next generation was going to care a lot more about the environment.

"With everything you find in the media these days, the environment is a far bigger influence," he said. "I understand from talking to my parents that there wasn't a lot of understanding about it back in their day.

"Now everyone has knowledge which they take home. Thirty or forty years ago people didn't really understand things like global warming.

"Understanding of global warming only just came about recently. Now that we understand what is happening it is going to make a big impact, definitely."

Mr. Witkowski and Mr. Mello are both in a rock band together called Secret Po-Po.

They are interested in careers in either music or the insurance industry.

Mr. Witkowski said he had learned a lot by being active in the KBB.

"Being a member of the charity has allowed me to organize things," he said. "Not only are we learning about the environment, but personally we are learning skills that a lot of kids don't get to learn this early.

"Often times we are in charge of adults, and we have to make the decisions.

"That is a good skill, because eventually we will be the ones in charge all the times." He said it is easy enough for a 16-year-old to get adults to listen.

"You have to say it with enough confidence in your voice and act like you know what you are talking about, then people will listen to you," said Mr. Witkowski.

Mr. Mello said being a part of KBB has helped to illustrate just how much trash is out there.

"We have gotten a greater understanding of what the situation really is like," said Mr. Mello. "You go to certain areas and you might not notice it when you are driving by on the road, but once you get in there, you realize just how bad it really is."

Mr. Witkowski said before he joined the KBB he thought only a few people dumped trash.

"Sometimes if you are not paying attention, you don't see it," he said. "But after this I realized that there is a lot of trash out there, a lot."

Mr. Mello and Mr. Witkowski hoped to bring fresh ideas to KBB, which has been going through a revitalisation in the last year or two.

"Being youthful, we have a greater understanding of how to get young people involved," said Mr. Witkowski. "From our experience of the clean-ups we know what goes on.

"We can just stream line everything and just expand." Mr. Mello said they hoped to use websites such as facebook.com to lure younger people into the organisation.

"We can get a lot more kids involved who have to do community service for school or the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme," Mr. Mello said.

"It is very important because once you start you realize that it is not just about the hours that you need to get."

For more information about KBB telephone 295-5142.