Hopefully you will have read the first two posts on today’s Green School Assembly.  This one serves as a reminder of the key points and the changes that will be happening in September. 

In the next school year the staff and children of LSP are all going to be using reusable water bottles.  The fantastic news is that 3/4 of our school population already do.  This measure will cut back on the use of single use plastic.  

If you are purchasing a new reusable water bottle we encourage people to go with the stainless steel option as this also cuts back on plastic use.  They are slightly more expensive than the plastic options. If you already have a reusable plastic bottle this is perfectly fine to use. Please be mindful when purchasing a new water bottle to read the labels carefully.  We are not experts on advising on which ones to choose but if you are buying plastic please ensure that they are BPA Free.  This is a safer type of bottle to use. If anyone reading this post has more expertise or information to provide us with on recommended water bottles please contact us in school and we can put this information on our website. 

Capri-sun type containers are not recyclable.  They go straight to a landfill. We have spoken about this many times at school assemblies.  They are also very sugary so don’t really fit well with our Healthy Eating Policy in LSP.  More great news!   On the day of the survey less than 1% of the 207 children surveyed had one of these containers in school.  So, going forward, we are asking that children do not bring these types of containers to school.

We spoke about the use of cartons as part of our lunches.  Each carton has three pieces of waste – the carton, the straw and the wrapper the straw comes in.  The carton can be recycled, the straw can if clean and the straw’s wrapper cannot be recycled.  When you think about the 4 r’s – refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle we can see that there are still three other options available before considering recycling. We are asking that families have a little think about including cartons as part of lunches.  Just to remember, a carton has 3 pieces of waste, a reusable  water bottle has none.