Sustainability

The Sustainability Leaders have discussed a number of matters during our last meetings but in the first instance we have been concerned that during the lockdown we see people using far more plastics, take away containers and coffee cups and so on. This has motivated us to look again at the impacts of all this rubbish and to think about where it goes and what we could do better. We have thought about what ends up in our landfills and in our waterways and, again, we have wondered if people really think about how long some things will take to break down. How much will our children, grandchildren and great great grandchildren have to live with, not to mention our wildlife and environment?

They have been most concerned about our marine life and so, with this in mind, Kai and Amy have left you with a message to think about, and we have attached a poster you might like to put up in your house ... just to consider when you next throw something away.

This week in the sustainability Google meeting we talked about where rubbish goes and what happens to it if you throw it on the ground. You won’t be able to guess how many years a glass bottle takes to decompose! It takes 1 million years and even then it still doesn’t completely go away! Another example is a plastic bag. This takes twenty years to decompose and not only does this debris take forever to decompose, it can also hurt animals who think that this debris is food. I wonder if everyone knows that turtles mistake plastic bags for their favourite food, jellyfish! These are just two examples of rubbish that goes into the ocean and hurts sea life, so next time you can’t be  bothered to throw your rubbish in the bin, think about what could happen and how much damage you could cause just by dropping your rubbish on the ground rather than putting it into the bin.  AMY 

Hey you, yes you, the one that just threw the rubbish on the ground. Do you know where that goes? It goes into our drains and then the waterways and then the ocean where it kills and destroys animal habitat and life. It does not decompose straight away. For example, aluminum cans or soft drink can not decompose straight away. Can you guess how long they take to decompose? If you guessed 500 years you are correct that is about 25 generations which is a very long time. Next time you throw something on the ground think about where that goes, if you see a friend throw something on the ground tell them where it goes, too.  KAI