Diexter Thomas
St Joseph’s Primary School yesterday asked Gibraltar’s three main supermarkets to cut down using plastic.
Three pupils from the school handed letters head offices at Morrisons, Eroski and Coviran as part of the ClimACT schools initiative.
Dr Terence Ocana, Headteacher at St Josephs Middle School said, “There is plastic in everything that we have: at home, in school and everywhere.”
“It is an incredible product, it is durable, it is hard-wearing, it is light, it is relatively cheap, so no wonder that it’s manufactured so quickly, and it’s difficult to imagine our lives without it.”
“But all of this comes at a heavy price for the environment as it’s very sad to see so much plastic pollution littering and spoiling our beaches.”
Dr T Ocana went on to mention the ‘Great Garbage Patch’, an area in the north of the pacific ocean the ‘size of France’ where a huge collection of non-biodegradable waste can be found.
Since this waste is non-biodegradable, the plastic gets broken down due to sunlight into micro plastics and can then find it’s way into the sea food that we eat.
ClimACT is a EU funded project aimed at reducing carbon emissions in schools and raising awareness of the environmental difficulties we are having in today’s society.
In total, 39 schools in four countries are currently taking part the initiative, of which 8 are Gibraltarian Schools
“ClimACT combines environmental, research and educational approaches to facilitate the integration of sustainable development in curricula,” says Amaia Fernandez from the University of Gibraltar.
“It raises environmental awareness and educates students and adults in sustainable practice.”
The Nautilus Project has raised a lot of awareness about the dangers of plastic in our seas, running numerous beach cleans around Gibraltar beaches.
