Reducing Single-Use Plastic on School Trips for Primary
In an effort to become a truly Green School starting from November 2019, there’s a new procedure to help us reduce the use of single-use plastic on primary school school trips.
Why the change in procedure?
Students normally receive a ½ litre bottle of water in single-use plastic with their packed lunch for school trips.
But for the many children who already carry a reusable water bottle with them on school trips, this extra bottle is unnecessary – it’s extra water, extra weight, and extra plastic.
In November, a proposal was voted on and approved at the Comitato Mensa to make this bottle of water optional, letting parents choose not to accept the single-use plastic bottle if they already supply their children with a reusable water bottle.
The new procedure has already been put into place for P4 and P5 classes on their trips to Milan in December and January. And we’ve already reduced the number of single-use plastic bottles by 40%. Based on these positive results, the Mensa will now extend this new procedure for all Nursery and Primary levels.
New procedure
From now on, when a school trip is announced by the Primary/Materna Secretary (Susanna Cernuschi), your Class Representative will:
- Ask parents who wants/doesn’t want a bottle of water for the trip (via a Doodle, email, etc.)
- At least 7 days before the trip, communicate the number of bottles and the names of the children who need them to the Mensa office (COMSEV) and the class teacher via email. This way, the Mensa can check their subscriber list (for packed lunches and water) and the teacher can be correctly distribute the bottles on the day of the trip.
IMPORTANT: There is no change in the price of the meal for 2019-2020. The price of the water is very small (about €0.20), and already included, and there’s no reimbursement if you don’t take a bottle.
However, the money saved will be calculated, set aside, and used for another project or reward (still to be decided). Ideas welcome!
What’s more, you’ll be taking a small positive step toward reducing the European School’s use of single use plastics and reducing the chances that those plastic bottles end up on our streets, in our seas or in our landfills. Thank you!