Wales

Teachers and students from Glan-y-Môr, Ysgol Bryngwyn and Coedcae Secondary Schools came together for an education day on reducing plastic waste, which was organised by the environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy.

Over forty young people took part in the education day, which was hosted by Ysgol Glan-y-mor in Burry Port, Carmarthenshire on the 15th of January. The day included activities and a workshop on reducing plastic waste, which and was followed by a beach clean at the local beach, Burry Port West.

This day was organised as part of the Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) competition and the Litter Less Campaign, with support from Eco-Schools Wales.

We asked pupils to write up their experience of the day and this is what Rhys Thomas from Coed Cae School said:

“On the 15th January we attended the Keep Wales Tidy Workshop at Glan-Y-Mor School.  In the workshop I learnt about the different types of plastic and where all our waste ends up.  After the workshop we went down to the beach and did a litter pick.  We found a lot of unused plastic that is harmful to wildlife but we had to leave the beach because there was a storm which I learnt is happening more frequently due to global warming.  After we went back to Glan-Y-Mor school we went through the dangers of plastics and how to reduce our carbon footprint.  We then watched a video on Greta Thunberg and she explained that if we didn’t clean up our mess we wouldn’t have a future.  At the end we were taught about the SDG’s and we also saw low income countries with huge amounts of plastic waiting to be burnt, damaging the air for all the residents.  I learnt a lot from the workshop and have been encouraging my family to reduce their carbon footprints and recycle plastic carefully.  We also always pick up any plastic we see when we go down to the beach.”

The local news published a story on the event: https://bit.ly/2BXRYo8