Glasgow’s young environmental warriors leading the charge on plastic
Sunnyside Primary School pupils have persuaded Ullapool, Calmac and now Glasgow council to change their thinking
The children of Sunnyside Primary School in Glasgow have been waging war on plastic pollution in our seas and rivers. Last month the self-styled “Ocean Defenders” convinced the country’s largest local authority, Glasgow City Council, to end the use of plastic straws in its public outlets, restaurants and school canteens.
It followed a similar success with Scotland’s biggest ferry operator, Caledonian Macbrayne, which said it had been persuaded to stop offering straws on its vessels by the children’s campaign.
And last December, pupils from the school on a field trip persuaded Ullapool to stop using plastic straws in all bars, restaurants and cafés, with help from Scottish Wildlife Trust and Ullapool Primary children.
Along the way, the school and its green champions have been praised at the Scottish Parliament by politicians including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon for their campaign, which uses the Twitter hashtag #Naestrawataw.
The young campaigners are now applying pressure to turn pledges into action.
Recent days have seen the pupils make presentations to Glasgow council’s commercial catering division and to national dairy giant Müller – a producer of millions of plastic straws every year.
And there is more to this campaign team than just wall charts and paper models – they are currently busy rehearsing their presentations and fine-tuning their impressive knowledge.
Beth Ritchie, 11, is using a model gannet made of disposable drinks cartons and straws to get her point across. Indicating the bird, she says: “As you can see it has plastic straws in its stomach. The thing is, when it eats any plastic it thinks it’s full, so, sadly it ends up dying of starvation.”
She adds: “Glasgow city council are not recycling [straws]. So we calculated that 200 straws a day in our school are being thrown away – that’s 36,000 a year only at this school. So imagine the whole of Scotland, the whole of Europe, and the whole world.”
It is a point well made and stark in its simplicity, which is greeted with approval by the children’s teacher, Lisa Perrie.
Public awareness of marine pollution has reached a highwater mark since the BBC’S recent Blue Planet television series.
The children’s endeavours are now starting to gain traction – and headlines – where they didn’t before. But the scope of the children’s work goes beyond plastic straws.
P6 children are currently in the process of writing to US president Donald Trump about drilling for oil in the Arctic, and the impact on the seas and wider environment.
Classes also carry with them information cards that they pass on to people they meet to raise awareness of the plight of marine animals in captivity.
Mairin Hamilton, 11, explains how the campaign started. “The class of 2014 started the conservation campaign, The Sunnyside Ocean Defenders,” she says.
“Since then it has improved. All the other classes have taken on the role of conservation work. They all do their own different things. Every class helps the environment in their own way.”
Ms Perrie is rightly proud of the children’s achievements, and hails the all-round benefits of what is being done by school. She said: “You can’t beat that impact for young children to know that adults at parliament, be it Holyrood or Westminster, are actually listening to them – that their opinion matters.
“They can go to these people with the knowledge and put their campaign across respectfully – it can have a huge impact.”
She adds: “Children are always drawn to nature, and drawn to animals. Hopefully what we give them are skills that they can then take out.
“And whether they’re next writing to their MP about housing or about a play park being built where they don’t want it, they have got these skills and then can hone them. The fact is that the planet actually needs them just now.”
The teacher adds: “Our motthe
“We calculated that 200 straws a day in our school are being thrown away – that’s 36,000 a year … imagine the whole of Scotland, the world”