Pupils at Seascale Primary School enjoyed a special visit from their local MP during their last day of term.
On Friday, Trudy Harrison MP joined pupils and teachers in Alder and Maple classes to discuss their ‘innovative’ work to reduce plastic waste.
The school is taking part in the Centre for Leadership Performance Bright Stars Programme, which this year challenges pupils to lead a campaign on something they want to improve and have developed the ‘Reduce, Re-use & Recycle’ campaign to help tackle plastic pollution using eco-bricks.
An ecobrick is a plastic bottle packed with used plastic that can be used to produce various items, including furniture, garden walls and other structures.
Discussions then moved onto the developing world and the schools’ link with Montessori Preschool, Bal Raman Batika in Nepal.
The two schools, which are more than 4000 miles apart, are working together on a project to produce a bi-lateral cookery book.
Trudy said: “It was such a treat to be shown around the brand new school, particularly as that was my old school.
“I was impressed with the children’s knowledge of the developing world and their innovative solutions for plastic pollution. I spoke with year 1 pupils about their bi-lateral cookery book project with Nepal, their plans to grow their own, and their interest in the global vaccine success.
“I was able to tell the pupils about the 1.9 million vaccines that have been sent to Nepal, which was of a particular interest as they are speaking with children in Katmandu, and meeting with years 4 and 5, I learned about their brilliant project to contain plastic pollution in a bottle to be used as building material for their raised beds.”
The Government’s Resources and Waste Strategy sets out plans to reduce, reuse, and recycle more plastic than is currently used, with a target to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste throughout the life of the Government's 25 Year Environment Plan.
For the most problematic plastics ministers are going further and have committed to work towards all plastic packaging placed on the market being recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
