A pupil at Dedridge Primary School in Livingston has launched a campaign to look at reducing the use of single use plastic water bottles in school packed lunches.
Callum, wrote a letter to his school’s head teacher to explain that he didn’t want to take a packed lunch home on a Friday as it contained single use bottled water.
West Lothian Council’s Facilities Management (FM) Service are responsible for the delivery of meals across the school estate and after finding out about Callum’s letter, the service has worked with him and the school to surveyed the entire school to find out what their thoughts about the distribution of single use plastic bottles on a Friday.
Work had previously been undertaken by FM Services to reduce single use plastics used in the provision of school meals.
For example, from Monday to Thursday, the primary children are served milk and water in reusable cups which meant an end to the use of plastic cartons and straws.
However, on a Friday, pupils finish earlier and are given a packed lunch to take home and prior to Callum’s campaign, bottled water was included in the packed lunch box.
The result of Callum’s work has meant that since the Easter break, bottled water has been provided separately to packed lunches so that pupils can decide if they want to take one along with their lunch.
Area catering co-ordinator, Lorraine McCulloch, said: “The service has taken steps to reduce use of single-use plastics in the provision of school meals and will always continue to explore options to reduce environmental footprint.
“Once we heard about Callum’s letter we were delighted to work with him and his classmates to see what could be done.
“The initiative he has shown has been simply fantastic. Access to water is essential and the earlier finish on a Friday unfortunately limits our options in providing an alternative to bottled plastic water.
“However, we are always happy to listen and following the feedback from the pupils, Callum and the rest of the pupils at Dedridge Primary now have the option to decide whether they take the plastic bottle home with them on a Friday.”
Callum is continuing his awareness raising work in the school and has been working on posters which will be asking pupils to think about how and when they are using single-use plastic items.
Dedridge Primary head teacher, Kathryn French, said: “It is so important that pupils feel that their voice can be heard and this is a fantastic example of this in action.
“Callum has demonstrated a great understanding of our natural environment and by using his initiative he has produced a positive result.
“We’re extremely proud of him and we’re equally delighted that both the school and the council were able to work with him on this project.”
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