As a busy mum of two young children, I know how precious time is. The manic morning rush on the school run can be somewhat stressful! I am the first to admit that when packing my son’s packed lunch, lack of time and other priorities often means I grab the easiest most convenient foods to pack. But unfortunately, they often aren’t the best choice for our planet (or my children’s diet!). You see most of the convenient packed lunch items come in encased in plastic. The amount of waste produced daily is hard to miss when my son comes home with all the empty wrappers at the end of the school day crammed into his lunch box- crisp packets, chocolate bar wrappers, cling film from his sandwiches and cheese string wrappers to name a few. This is then repeated 5 days a week, throughout the school year. The amount of plastic going in the bin adds up quickly.
After studying the oceans and plastic pollution 2 years ago with our past pupils I was shocked by the statistics. But I was left thinking, what difference can I really make to such a global issue and carried on with life, aware of the issue but not truly making any changes to my daily shopping habits. Let’s face it, when you look down the shopping aisles, plastic free options are not easy to come by and as a busy parent I didn’t have time for the hassle.
However, as I now revisit the oceans topic with our current Year 5 and 6 pupils, I am again reminded of the harsh facts about plastic pollution. The shock on the children’s faces as they heard the terrible statistics about how much plastic we use as a planet and throw away was impossible to ignore. The problem with plastic is that it is not going away and it’s no longer possible to stick my head in the sand and ignore the issue thinking it’s someone else’s problem.
Take a moment to survey how much plastic is in the room you are currently in. Did you find any? I bet you did. Plastic is a useful material – it’s strong and flexible. It can be shaped in many colours and is cheap and durable. However, the problem with plastic is that it is durable. The alarming fact is that most plastic ever produced is still on the planet in one form or another. We just keep continuing to add to the mountain of plastic, often for a wrapper that is used just once and thrown away. Every day, 8 million pieces of plastic is tipped into our oceans- every single minute of every single day. By 2050, the scientists are predicting there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish! Even when the plastics do start to break down, they are still there as microplastics, which end up in the fish we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe. It even suffocates our sea creatures, with 100,000 mammals and one million sea birds dying a year because of plastic pollution. Plastic is not sounding quite so fantastic now.
Is changing my current shopping habits going to be easy? Honestly no. Next time you are on your weekly grocery shop, look down the aisle. The plastic free options are hard to spot. The fact is we must do more to protect our planet for future generations. I want my children to have a planet left to explore, and clean oceans to enjoy. The sad reality is as consumers we are adding to the problem daily.
So here at RAMJS we decided to make a stand and try and change our habits. The children have created posters, videos and even led an assembly on it. But we also need your help. We thought up the idea of a Waste Free Wednesday with the help of the children. We are asking you to try and pack a packed lunch with as little waste as possible. Now, it may seem like an onerous task, adding to already busy mornings, but hopefully, a few small changes, might save you money and the planet one small step at a time. My children now have crisps in a Tupperware box from a larger share bag, so I only have one large crisp packet to recycle at the end of the week. Their yoghurt is poured from a larger pot into reusable small containers that again lasts the week. Or if we have large batch type meals like pasta or soup they can take some of that in in reuseable containers. I’ve stopped buying individually wrapped chocolate bars and instead buy larger packs and take out what they need each day.
We’re not asking you to abandon the plastic. We know plastic is here to stay. We are just wanting to use less where we can and recycle what we do use. Let’s help reduce our plastic use, one packed lunch at a time! Join us for Waste Free Wednesday!
Mrs Tipton
ramjsblog.com 