Plastic Pollution Pioneers

Pupils were invited to the Houses of Parliament to recognise their outstanding contribution to The Big Plastic Count.

During the spring term, our pupils contributed to The Big Plastic Count by generating personalised household plastic profiles, achieving the highest participation in the whole country. Subsequently, two Sixth Formers on the eco-committee were invited to a special event at the Houses of Parliament. Charlotte reports back:

“The Big Plastic Count, run by Everyday Plastic, is an investigation into household plastic waste across the UK. As an eco-committee, we wanted to take part because we wanted to back the charity’s calls to government and help push for real change on this issue. As a result of our school’s engagement with The Big Plastic Count, we were invited by the charity Everyday Plastic to the Houses of Parliament for the results launch event and to speak with MPs about the problem. For the eco-committee, The Big Plastic Count was very helpful, not only for the data it provided to government, but also to help us improve our own sustainability as a school and reduce plastic waste. While at Parliament, we met Fleur Anderson MP, who said she would contact Tulip Siddiq, our local MP, on our behalf. We also spoke with other MPs about the wider implications of the UK shipping its plastic waste abroad to be incinerated, and why this needs to change. As members of the eco-committee, we were so grateful for the opportunity, and it was inspiring to see that our engagement with this initiative has been making a difference.”

The initiative is just one of the many ways we encourage our pupils to develop the confidence and skills to create future impact in the outside world – read more about our plans to create changemakers in our Beyond 150 strategy.