Earth Matters: Plastic Waste

Plastic waste

 

We have recently found that as a school the amount of bottles we use is astoundingly worrying. In  a half week term, we collect enough bottles per year to make 1/3 the size of Everest. We would have enough to fill the space between Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.  This is around 300kg, which is the weight of a speedboat or 5 washing machines. Over the entire school year, it is estimated to be 1670kg, the weight of a medium sized car.

Those of us who were doing their report on plastics, created a number 20,000 on the playground, made entirely from  plastic waste that we created. Despite the wet, cold conditions, we really enjoyed ourselves.

The significance of the 20,000 is that over the course of seven weeks we found out that we use 20000 plastic bottles. We also found out that some of these bottles were pretty much half full. It is shocking that people buy plastic bottles, don’t even drink them all up and then throw them away.

But the whole point of this exercise was to try and put some figures towards raising awareness of plastic waste. The simple fact that the amounts are this high is appalling. The cause, we have found is the tiny bottles that contain sparkling flavoured waters. These are very popular at school, but do not hydrate people very well. A good alternative to this would be refillable bottles that students get given. This would give people the option to re-use their bottles as well as decreasing plastic usage. Another alternative is simply to limit the amount of plastic that students can buy. But how would this appeal to students?

Simeon said “It is an idea that I agree with, as many at school rely on buying drinks & a lot of students are not aware of the water fountains. However, it may work as the students may feel like it is a positive impact towards their learning & school environment.”

Written by Andrew