The Plastic Bag Story

[Christina Brown]

We put the video of 'The Plastic Bag Story' on a continuous loop and spread the contents of FIVE bags of rubbish collected by the Council on ONE DAY between the school and Morrisons Supermarket on a tarpaulin in the Main Hall of Banchory Academy for all to see at a Parent/Teacher evening last week.  

The Chair of the Community Council, a local Councillor, the Deputy Head of the school, and the Head of Aberdeenshire Waste Aware South team were present and talked with the parents and children.

I have to admit that there were not too many plastic carrier bags in the pile but lots of plastic drink bottles/sandwich containers/plastic boxes/etc/etc.

The parents [AND THE CHILDREN] were quite shocked to see it all spread before them as they waited for their interviews with various teachers and one parents has since told me that it had a big impact on her family.  I hope so as it is a big problem for the whole community.

The school has another two P/T evenings in January for the older children [which might be more relevant]  so we will be repeating the exercise.

Has anyone else had to tackle this issue and, if so, do they have any helpful hints?

Christina