World Environment Day

Today is World Environment day with the theme 'Beat plastic pollution', its aim is to raise awareness of the disastrous effects plastic has on ecosystems, wildlife and human health.

Sixth Form Environmental Pupil Leader, Libby C-W shares some ideas on decreasing your personal plastic pollution.

The planet generates around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, that's the equivalent of 4,000,000 Blue whales in weight!

Around 8 million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year and covers roughly 40% of the oceans surface, Scientists have concluded that by 2030 there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. That in just five years...

Around 100,000 animals a year die of plastic entanglement and humans digest an average of 5g of plastic a week.

However here are some very easy things to do that decrease your personal plastic pollution, even a little change can make a huge difference if it was made on a large scale:

• Carry a reusable plastic water bottle, this can be difficult during exam season but buying a clear and washable one will cut down on your wastage and save you money.
• Make sure you recycle, this can be seen as common and over said but only 9% of plastic actually gets recycled, leaving 91% ending up as unbiodegradable waste.
• Resist microwaving your food when in plastic containers as this can release millions of microplastics into your food.
• Buying vintage or second hand clothes is an effective way at lowering clothing wastage and saves money, especially as some online sites sell brand new clothes at a lower price.
• Buy items in bulk, websites like Amazon sell items in bulk for a much cheaper price like food.

These are just a few things you could do today to decrease your plastic pollution and raising awareness as often as possible is an extremely effective way of helping the Planet out as decreasing plastic pollution worldwide is no small task.

Plea to pupils!

It would be great if those of you who are interested in joining the Environment committee for future meetings regarding issues worldwide and in our school community could pop me an email or talk to me around school so I can get started with setting it up! 

Happy Environment day! 

Find out more here: https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/

Libby C-W and Carmel H.