Tackling Plastic Northern Ireland
Schools tackling plastic
Schools are a great place to harness young people's enthusiasm for having a positive impact on the environment. If you're a pupil, parent, guardian or teacher, add your Plastic Promise and inspire others to do the same! Does your school need some inspiration?
- Make reusable water bottles part of school culture: fill your bottle up as part of your morning routine and it keep it in your school bag. Make sure your school has a refill station and pupils know where to locate it
- Ban single-use plastic straws: if pupils need a straw encourage metal, paper or bamboo alternatives
- Switch to reusable plates and cutlery: use ceramic plates and metal cutlery instead of pointless single-use plastic ones. Bring a reusable lunch box and ask the canteen manager if it can be filled up instead. This will save the school money in the long term
- Bring reusable lunch boxes or sandwiches wrapped in beeswax wraps: cling film isn't currently recycled in NI so get creative with alternatives
- Have a reusable party kit: Don't spend money on disposable cups and plates for parties in or out of school. Ask the school to purchase a reusable party kit, use it in school and encourage parents to use it for after school birthday parties
Quick access resources:
- Marine topic: asks schools to look at all aspects of our diverse marine environment: what lives in our seas, why it is important to us, what threats is it under and how can we help protect it?
- Know your plastics infographic
- Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): football template: use this to encourage students to think about the SDGs that link to plastic, issues and the potential solutions. Ask students to add drawings or words in the blank hexagons to show connections and learnings.
- More resources
Webinars - #TacklingPlasticNI
Find all previous webinars on our YouTube Channel or refer to the list below.
Tip: Set the viewing of one (or more!) of these webinars as homework and encourage your students to take part in our Video Bites campaign or enter our live webinars competition to give them a platform to have their voices heard!
- Single Use Plastic Impact on Marine Wildlife with Lizzie Daly
- YRE: Tackling Pointless Plastic Packaging with PJ Marcellino
- Plastic Amazon: not just our Oceans with Dan O'Neil
- How to Live Sustainably, One Object at a Time with Dr Tara Shine
- Notes from a Plastic Planet with Nick Baker (Schools! Get in touch with us to receive this webinar directly)
- Plastics and Pond Life with Paul Moore
- Chemistry for Sustainable Plastics with Professor Tom Welton
- A Plastic Journey - from Primary Schools to Polar Bears (and Penguins!) with Doug Allan