This month is Plastic Free July, and the Two Oceans Aquarium is challenging schools to go plastic free.
Wednesday 3 July was International Plastic Bag Free Day.
The Aquarium will help schools that wish to make this commitment and change through the process.
Plastic Free July is a campaign to address plastic pollution, which has become so pervasive in oceans and is responsible for the distress and deaths of so many marine animals, says the Aquarium.
“It is estimated that 80% of all ocean litter originates on land,” its statement says. “During the 2018 International Beach Clean-up Day, 757 523 plastic shopping bags were collected, recorded and removed from the beach environment.
“It is far easier, and healthier for the environment, to stop the bags from entering the environment in the first place, than having to clean them up once discarded. It is for this reason that the Aquarium challenges schools to become plastic bag free zones.”
To be a bag-free school means degrading single-use plastic bags on the school premises. Food and other items should be placed in re-usable containers and bags.
The Aquarium says it realises it is not necessarily an easy commitment to roll out in schools, and so it offers hands-on support. Hayley McLellan, Two Oceans Aquarium Environmental Campaigner, and founder of #RethinkTheBag, is keen to present at schools on the topic of plastic pollution in the ocean. These talks are high-energy, informative, inspirational and moving – and free of charge.
Several schools have already accepted the challenge, and have declared themselves plastic bag-free zones. These include Wynberg Girls’ High, Prestwich Street Primary School, Grove Primary, La Rochelle Girls’ High School and Deutsche Internationale Schule Kapstadt.
Is it not time for your school to join this list of go getters?
