SUSTAINABILITY 

Soft Plastics Recycling at School and at Home

Today’s young people are growing up in a world heavily affected by plastic pollution. Check out these stats!

• Over half of all plastic ever manufactured has been produced in the last two decades.
• Roughly 2 million plastic bags are used every minute worldwide, with an average single-use plastic bag lasting just 12 minutes before disposal!
• The most common plastic waste found in the environment consists of food and beverage wrappers, bottle and container caps, and plastic bags. 

At Bittern Primary School, we want our students to become environmentally responsible citizens by learning about the importance of recycling and reducing waste. We want to set a challenge to not just create change at school but to create change at home and in our communities. Supporting small sustainable habits at school, home and in our communities we can help create a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future for our young people.

Soft plastics are the tricky plastics that can't go in the recycling bin and take a little more effort to dispose off responsibly. Soft plastics include items such as bread bags, chip packets, cling wrap, Ziploc food bags and plastic packaging. These plastics are made from materials created using fossil fuels and can take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. 

Sadly, millions of tonnes of plastic waste enter the environment each year, harming wildlife, polluting waterways and impacting ecosystems around the world. Research suggests that Australians use around 70 billion pieces of soft plastic every year, with much of it ending up in landfill.

At Bittern Primary School, we know that small changes can make a big difference. By using reusable containers, drink bottles, reusable lunch wraps and reusable shopping bags, families can significantly reduce the amount of single-use plastic entering our environment. Reusable containers also help reduce lunch waste at school and teach us valuable lifelong habits around sustainability, responsibility and caring for the planet.

We love our oceans and bays here on the Mornington Peninsula and by woring together to reduce, reuse and recycle empowers us to become part of the solution and helps us understand that our choices matter.

We encourage all families to continue these reduce, reuse and recycle conversations and practices at home. Together, through small everyday actions, we can help protect our environment, reduce waste and create a healthier future for the next generation.

Don't forget... thos pesky soft plastics can be dropped off at your local Woolies and your harder plastics go in your curbside recycling bin. This way they can be sent of to the magical places where they can be recycled and prevented from filling up our beautiful lands.

This is a global issue and we love seeing people come together to raise awareness. Check out these awesome artworks that were inspired by plastic waste and have been used to raise awareness around the planet.