Positive action on climate change: The Big Plastic Count
Talbot Primary School was contacted by an environmental organisation funded by Everyday Plastic and Greenpeace. In March, they asked schools across the country to take part in “The Big Plastic Count”, to find out how much plastic waste is thrown away by households in the UK throw. In total, nearly 35,0000 pupils took part, of which 48 families were from Talbot.
And the result? The Big Plastic Count calculated that 1.7 billion pieces of plastic waste were thrown away during the week of The Big Plastic Count – equating to 90 billion pieces of plastic per year!
The count also looked at what is happening with the UK's plastic waste. Sadly, very little is being recycled,
On 17 April, 35 pupils from 12 different schools travelled to Parliament for the Big Plastic Count Youth Empowerment Day. They met with around 50 cross-party MPs, including former PM Theresa May, former Environment Secretaries Michael Gove and George Eustice and current Secretary of State for Transport Mark Harper. They urged MPs to pledge support for a strong global target to cut plastic production, emphasising it as the only solution to the plastic waste crisis. We hope and expect it to make a difference to those in power.
Everyday Plastic and Greenpeace would like to thank all of those who contributed to affect significant change. We very much appreciate your participation, and we hope you enjoyed taking part in our investigation!
Hopefully, the pupils will continue to care about their planet and push to make meaningful changes through positive action like this.
