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Our team has gone through a number of iterations to determine which of our ideas best addresses the problem of reducing the use of single-use plastic waste in schools.

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Start a collection of reusables in a central place within the school grounds that any child/parent can borrow, use, clean and return, in order to avoid single-use plastic waste.

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With the help of teachers, students can be empowered to set up a committee to organise school events promoting the benefits of reducing single-use plastic and implementing ways that everyone can be involved. Students can be encouraged to create videos detailing their efforts and this can uploaded to social media so that people can see how the school is tackling the recycling issue.

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Boycott Single- Use Plastics in On-Campus Bars and Cafes!

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Boycott Single- Use Plastics in On-Campus Bars and Cafes!

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The university can look into ordering eco-friendly, recyclable materials for their on-campus bars and cafes. This will help reduce the Uni's carbon footprint and show that they are actively looking for a solution to the problem of single use plastics!

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Universities can invest in reusable water bottles for students to purchase and use on campus. Instead of selling bottled water in university-run cafes and bars, students can hand in their water bottle and have it refilled by the staff.
In addition, water fountains can be put in place around campus to encourage students to purchase their reusable bottle and also promote the importance of drinking lots of water throughout the day!

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The first step is education. Holding a film screening or talk that conveys the issues of ocean plastic is the most effective way to explain WHY you are taking action as a school to reduce plastic waste. It’s helpful to invite parents to get involved too so that they will be supportive of the project.

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Start a compost pile at school and encourage kids to participate in its growth by bringing apples, cherries, oranges, any fruit in to school in their lunchbox. None of these will require plastic packaging and they will want to bring them to put their apple cores, peelings etc. in the school compost.

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Start a reward system for children in the school. A merit is earned for each day they remember to bring a plastic free lunch to school (this will ensure the children keep encouraging the parents!) and soon the ideas of bringing reusable drinks, reusable sandwich box etc. will quickly become common place.

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Educate children with clean up day trips

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Educate children with clean up day trips

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One of the best ways to get people engaged with the issue is to let them see for themselves the scale of the problem; how the plastic they use in their school lives is spilling out into nature. Organising regular clean up events – on your school premises or to the park or beach, and invite the parents to come along too!

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Inviting Recycling Experts into the school

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Inviting Recycling Experts into the school

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inviting experts to come and give talks in the school on the importance of recycling single-use plastic and the consequences to the environment.

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By getting parents involved, they can encourage the children to recycle at school and home. As children's lunch boxes are prepared by the parents, by making it a joint effort, children can feel empowered so that they are more likely to sustain the recycling.

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Rather than spending money on disposable cups and plates (that normally have a plastic coating) for every event, invest in a durable set of plates, cups and tablecloths that can be used time and time again. The parents association could even cover the costs by renting the set out for pupil birthday parties – saving even more plastic from going to landfill!

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Cling film currently cannot be recycled in the UK, so get creative with alternatives: tin foil, reusable containers, reusable cotton-wax wraps, reusable sandwich bags – with so many options enjoy working out the best one.

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Children like fun things, so having a recycling month where everyone can get involved and develop ideas on how to reduce single-use plastic. They can take pictures, and these can be placed on the walls around the school to let everyone know what is going on.

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Resorting back to normal cutlery rather than a plastic knife and fork. This is thrown away after one use.

Encouraging children  to bring re-usable drinking containers to school reducing the need for plastic  bottles and cans.

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Re-usable containers with individual compartments so that food can be placed directly into the box reducing the need for plastic wrapping

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Challenge to reduce the amount of plastic in children's lunch boxes

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Challenge to reduce the amount of plastic in children's lunch boxes

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Children's lunch boxes are filled with plastic such as cling film and yoghurt containers so the challenge is how to reduce this, and in turn ensuring that we limit the amount of rubbish sent to landfills.

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People in the UK throw away around 295 billion (295,000,000,000) pieces of plastic, YEARLY. A large majority of this is single-use and cannot be recycled. A ban on single use plastic has been passed in the UK and been in place since 2020 however there is still large amounts of plastic which has been wasted. More needs to be done to tackle this crisis.

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Every year in the UK we use 4.7 billion plastic straws, 316 million plastic stirrers and 1.8 billion plastic- stemmed cotton buds (YouGov)

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Businesses reducing their Single Use Plastic Waste

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Businesses reducing their Single Use Plastic Waste

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In the last few years we have seen many large businesses make changes to the service they provide. For example, the fast food chain McDonald's have stopped manufacturing plastic straws in favour of fully recyclable paper ones. In addition, many supermarkets now charge for plastic bags in store, with places such as Tesco in Wales charging up to 20p per bag. Supermarkets are also now increasingly selling a 'bag for life' for customers to purchase and use for future shops.

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It is estimated that 100,000 sea mammals die from entanglement and suffocation caused by plastic marine debris.

Around 1 million sea birds die a year from ingesting pieces of plastic found on land or floating in the sea.

Approximately one in four fish caught for human consumption has pieces of plastic in its gut.

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Kids Against Plastic - Kids attempting to tackle the effects of single-use plastic in the UK

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P lastic was invented less than a hundred years ago, yet in this short amount of time, single-use plastic in particular has become one of the biggest made-made threats to our planet today.
From the amount of oil used its manufacture, the toxic leachate produced when plastic is buried, to the millions of tonnes of plastic entering our oceans per year - single-use plastic is misused and abused with severe consequences.

Some quick facts about single-use plastic

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Issues and Concerns - Kids Against Plastic

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P lastic was invented less than a hundred years ago, yet in this short amount of time, single-use plastic in particular has become one of the biggest made-made threats to our planet today.

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Around 60% of the plastic we use is single-use – used once and then thrown away, and about a truck’s worth of plastic enters the world’s oceans every single minute.

By 2050 scientists believe there will be more plastic in the sea than fish (in weight terms)

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It is likely that the seafood we eat contains microplastic in its gut or nano plastics in the meat tissue

Microplastics in the ocean attract toxins from the water around it.

Toxins in sealife are persistent, and biomagnify up the food chain we are the top of.

Toxins and chemicals from plastics are thought to cause cancer and disrupt hormones.

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Did you know? The UK alone uses 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups per year!

In numbers, that’s: 2.5,000,000,000,000

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Some quick facts about single-use plastic

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Some quick facts about single-use plastic

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Single-use plastic

Over the last 10 years humans have produced more plastic than during the last century.

For every single-use plastic bottle of water, the equivalent of around 1/5th of its capacity of oil – a finite resource – is used.

We’ve compiled some resources to promote discussion and raise awareness of just what the issues and concerns regarding plastic are.

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Plastic was invented less than a hundred years ago, yet in this short amount of time, single-use plastic in particular has become one of the biggest made-made threats to our planet today.

From the amount of oil used its manufacture, the toxic leachate produced when plastic is buried, to the millions of tonnes of plastic entering our oceans per year – single-use plastic is misused and abused with severe consequences.

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How To Reduce Our Personal Usage Of Single Plastic

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How To Reduce Our Personal Usage Of Single Plastic

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Plastic pollution also puts more than 700 marine animal species in harm's way. But marine creatures are not the only ones at risk of being harmed by or consuming plastic waste — humans also unknowingly digest microplastics.
Microplastic and nano plastic particles are now discoverable in human organs. Microplastics have polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans.

The fight against plastic waste starts with individual action. These are some simple steps to seriously reduce your plastic use right now.

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9 ways to reduce your single plastic use

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9 ways to reduce your single plastic use

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Simple ways to cut down the amount of plastic we all use, from bags and bottles to straws and packaging.

1. Carry a reusable bottle

In the UK we use over 35 million plastic bottles every day! Carrying a reusable bottle is a great way to cut your plastic use and save money too! There’s even an app that tells you where you can refill your bottle for free!

2. Say no to plastic straws

Plastic straws are bad news for our oceans. Next time you order a drink, think about whether you need a straw – and if you don’t, just say no! You can also ask your local pub to stop adding straws to drinks as standard and offer paper straws to those who want one

3. Take a reusable coffee cup

2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the UK – and less than 1 in 400 are recycled. Carry a reusable cup with you – some cafes even offer a small discount if you use your own cup (and if they don’t ask them why not!)

4. Avoid excessive food packaging

Whether it’s making different choices in the supermarket or choosing a different place to shop, we can all try and cut down the plastic we buy. And as an added bonus, loose fruit and veg is often cheaper than pre-packaged alternatives! (https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/9-ways-reduce-plastic-use/, 2017)

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Impact Of Covid-19 On Increase In Single Use Plastic 

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Impact Of Covid-19 On Increase In Single Use Plastic 

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Much of the PPE used around the world is single-use by design and can contain a range of different plastics, from polypropylene and polyethylene in face masks and gowns to nitrile, vinyl and latex in gloves. Yet just a few decades ago, almost all PPE was reusable. That changed in the 1980s when the medical devices industry recognised the moneymaking potential of single-use disposable products. The Covid-19 Pandemic has seen a remarkable rise in the amount of PPE sent to landfill (Waste360.com, 2021).

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Single-use plastics are in the spotlight, as more and more people opt to reduce them. This even includes businesses like Hyatt Hotels and McDonalds in the U.K. and Ireland—as well as Starbucks, whose plan to go plastic-straw-free by 2020 will save one billion straws per year.

As a result of the carrier bag charge, the average person in England now buys just four bags a year from the main supermarkets, compared with 140 in 2014. The single-use carrier bag charge will be extended to all retailers and increased to 10p from April 2021 to further protect our oceans from plastic waste. (Gov.UK, 2020)

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Single-use plastics are disposable plastics meant for use and throw. ... According to World Wildlife Fund (WWF, 2018), plastic is harmful to the environment as it is non-biodegradable, takes years to disintegrate. Single-use plastics slowly and gradually break down into smaller pieces of plastic known as microplastics

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Most of our plastic ends up in landfills, our oceans and waterways, and the environment. Plastics do not biodegrade. Instead, they slowly break down into smaller pieces of plastic called microplastics. ... Plastic items like bags and straws choke wildlife and block animals' stomachs.  (Greenpeace, 2018)

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WHAT IS SINGLE-USE PLASTIC AND WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging.

We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable! World-wide only 10-13% of plastic items are recycled.

The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.

Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds it’s way into the ocean.

Although plastic will not biodegrade (decompose into natural substance like soil,) it will degrade (break down) into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.

These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream and the latest research has found them to disrupt the Endocrine system  which can cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.

What is single use plastic? — Plastic Free Challenge

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A) 8m tons of plastic leaks into the oceans each year.
B) a garbage truck dumping its contents in the ocean every minute of every day.
c) 100m plastic straws a year are removed from Aramark operations. This is equivalent to over 12,000 miles placed end to end, enough to wrap halfway around the world.
D) 60% of consumers are concerned with the overuse of plastic.
E) 80% want to reduce personal consumption of plastic.

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In an effort to reduce plastic waste Aramark, the global leader in food and facilities management, has committed to significantly reducing the use of single-use disposable plastics across its global operations by 2022.
Starting in September, Aramark will implement changes across 19 countries, including the UK and Ireland where it serves over 110 million meals a year in over 1,100 workplaces, sports and leisure venues, hospitals, universities and more. Aramark's size and reach provide an opportunity to minimise environmental impact in hundreds of locations and communities across the UK and Ireland.

The announcement is part of a holistic strategy to address single-use plastics overall, starting with the most visible category of straws, cups and soup containers offering reusable products and encouraging consumers to consider biodegradable alternatives.

Already Aramark has removed over 410,000 straws from UK sites and is in the process of removing 418,000 straws from client locations in Ireland by December 2018. Similarly, it has replaced approximately 5 million plastic lined coffee cups and soup containers with a fully compostable product. Beyond this, it plans to reduce the use of any single-use plastics such as bags, forks, and knives and expand offerings with reusable containers and bags.

Frank Gleeson, Region President, Northern Europe said: "We are absolutely committed to reducing single-use plastic wherever possible. The world is changing at a rapid rate and urgent actions are required to meet the sustainability challenges we are facing. We want to promote best practice and by responding and acting quickly to remove plastic straws and containers from all of our restaurants, I believe we can make a difference in the use of unnecessary plastic and make the restaurant and hospitality industry more sustainable and environmentally friendly."

Shane Flynn, Managing Director Food Services Ireland explained "By working hand-in-hand with our customers, we can make significant progress in limiting the consumption of single-use plastics by reducing waste before it happens. This action provides an opportunity to make meaningful achievements in minimising our environmental impact, while continuing to deliver experiences that enrich and nourish lives".

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Single-Use Plastic campaign launched by Aramark - Hospitality & Catering News

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In an effort to reduce plastic waste Aramark, the global leader in food and facilities management, has committed to significantly reducing the use of single-use disposable plastics across its global operations by 2022.

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There may be info in this that we can use as a guide.
https://info.recyclecoach.com/hubfs/Whitepapers/recyclecoach_university_whitepaper.pdf