School children have been collecting and recycling plastic as part of a global environmental initiative.

For this year’s Earth Day, Milborne St Andrew First School has been busy collecting plastics used at home as part of its ‘Milborne vs Plastic’ drive.

Each child collected plastic recyclable items used at home throughout the week in order to calculate how much plastic they use a year.

They started collecting the plastic on Monday April 22 (Earth Day) and finished collecting on Friday, April 26. 

Dorset Echo: Children at Milborne St Andrew First School collecting plastic Children at Milborne St Andrew First School collecting plastic (Image: Milborne St Andrew First School)

Once all the plastic had been counted, the result revealed that 19,376 plastic bottles are used every year by families whose children attend the school, along with 22,776 plastic containers, 14,212 yoghurt pots, 24,960 food wrappers and 3,132 dunker tubs.

Head of school, Michelle Cheeseman said: “It has created a real buzz around school this week, starting with Earth Day on Monday.

“Our children have felt empowered to do their bit to tackle the climate crisis.

Dorset Echo:

“Inspired by our harmony curriculum where nature is at the heart of everything we do, our children seized the opportunity to do something practical and raise awareness of the amount of plastic we get through as families.

“We are lucky that our team and families are absolutely amazing, setting up the recycling centre, helping the children sort and count, tallying it all up and creating a strong visual reminder of how important it is to reduce as well as recycle."

The school achieved its Green Eco Flag status a couple of years ago and continues to build sustainable action into its curriculum.

The weeklong recycling drive has also helped to teach the pupils a valuable lesson about the planet and the impact of plastics on the environment, inspiring them to do more.

Dorset Echo: Recycle centre set up at Milborne St Andrew first School Recycle centre set up at Milborne St Andrew first School (Image: Milborne St Andrew First School)

Jon, a pupil at the school said: “Plastic has been a really useful material but now we realise it has been doing harm.”

Whilst John-Paul added: “I want to make posters to tell people in the village to reduce their plastic and use reusable materials instead.”

Layla said : “We should stop chucking away plastic because it is ruining our oceans and the animals that live there too.”

Ava added: "Me and my little brother have been helping to pick up litter at home."

Parent Kate O'Kelly was pleased with how her children reacting to  the initiative.

She said: "It had really made them think as a family about what they were using and it had reminded them that they can separate soft plastics and take them separately to Tesco where they can be recycled." 

Earth Day is a global movement that aims at educating people on environmental issues is demanding a 60 per cent reduction in all plastic production by 2040.