We visited Dunvant Primary School in Swansea, Wales to talk about the environment and run some litter picking sessions for the children. Keen to join our Waste Less initiative, this school had really thrown themselves into reducing single-use plastic and recycling.
We started our day with a talk about what plastic pollution is; what happens to our rubbish when we throw it away; how litter ends up on our UK beaches; and what we can do to reduce our household and single-use plastic waste. Speaking to all ninety children we were really impressed by their thoughtful answers and questions.
There were three classes of thirty students and each class took it in turns to litter pick their school field. The enthusiasm of the students was amazing, and many of the children got stuck into the bushes amongst the stinging nettles in order to get to the hard to reach pieces of litter!
We mostly found very small and light weight pieces of rubbish such as crisp packets and plastic bags, however we did find a large foam foot toy, a square of foam flooring, and a plastic fish bowl!
There were lots of questions asked by the children throughout the day about how to reduce waste, how to stop litter, and questions about the impact of plastics in the sea. It was really impactful talking about litter and single-use plastics while the children were searching for litter. We could see how much the children were taking it on board. One student even told us that their parents had bought them a litter picker at home so they could carry on picking up rubbish on the weekends during their dog walks.
Students collected a total 2.94 kilos of litter throughout the morning from their school field! A great result!
As well as litter picking, and asking lots of questions, the students had been learning about the ocean, litter, and ocean plastic pollution prior to our arrival. We were delighted to see all of the carefully drawn and coloured posters that had been made. Teachers at the school had incorporated lessons and activities about these topics throughout the classroom. We were really impressed with the school’s dedication to cutting out plastic, promoting recycling, and raising awareness about ocean plastic.
Here is some of the work the classes had been doing to learn more about the ocean, plastic pollution, and recycling:
We were so grateful for the opportunity to come and visit the wonderful students at Dunvant Primary, as we can’t commend them enough for their efforts in making their school more environmentally friendly. To help them in their fight against single-use plastic we donated 100 reusable bottles for the students and teachers. Hopefully this will help them to cut out single-use plastic bottles more easily.
If you would like to sign up your school or class to our Waste Less initiative, then please contact hello@lifesabeach.org – we would love to hear from you!
