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>> KAY BURLEY: Hello there, I’m Kay Burley reporting for Sky News. We have an important Sky News exclusive. We head now to Studio One at Sky Academy Skill Studios.

>> EMMY: Good evening and welcome to Sky News. I am your reporter Emmy.

>> NATHAN: And I am your reporter Nathan bringing your eco news. We are looking into today at amazing work done by Bedford Primary School. Looking in the journey of single use plastic.

>> EMMY: All the children at Bedford Primary School, that’s 400 children, have pledged to make sure that all their waste goes in the bin. They have pledged to stop using single use plastic. They have pledged to collect single use plastic to make eco bricks and they have pledged to litter pick at their local beach.

MALE VOICEOVER: Plastic is really useful, and we use it every day but what happens after we throw it away is causing a big problem for our planet. We are dumping twelve million tonnes of plastic in our ocean every year. That’s a whole truck of rubbish every minute.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: We drop rubbish outdoors which blows down our drains into rivers and streams. Ending up in our oceans. We often flush plastic and plastic particles down our drains and toilets. In cleaning products, wet wipes and cotton buds. Factories that use plastic for packaging and making products often throw away plastic particles which end up on our beaches.

>> NATHAN: I am Nathan.

>> EMMY: And I am Emmy. And we are heading over to our roving reporter Max at the beach to tell us more about this plastic fantastic project.

>> NATHAN: Thank you for tuning in.

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>> MAX: Thank you Emmy and Nathan. Good afternoon my name is Max.

>> NIDJE: And my name is Nidje and we are reporting live from Crosby Beach near Liverpool where we have been looking into Bedford’s project.

>> MAX: That’s right Nidje. Over three days in March this year all the children from year one and year six braved some very cold, wet weather to take part in a very exciting beach clean.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: The children were gathered by volunteers from the Friends of Crosby Beach who kitted out every child with a high vis jacket, gloves and with the picking equipment.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: Being safe was very important so Antony Gormley’s famous Iron Man hold special flags on the day to help the children stay away from the sinking sand on the beach.

FEMALE VOICEOVER: Upon analysing the plastic collected back at school the children found out that there were more plastic bottle tops than everything else and bags closely followed by sweet wrappers and plastic straws.

>> NIDJE: Over the course of three days the group collected almost 40 bags of plastic rubbish. So the beach looked cleaner after all that effort.

>> MAX: As if this wasn’t enough, they also visited the nearby leisure centre and created eco-bricks using plastic waste. Yes, that’s right I said eco-bricks.

>> NIDJE: Stay watching to hear more as we will now hand over to Patricia reporting live from Bedford Primary School.

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MALE VOICEOVER: Plastic in the ocean kills more than one million sea birds every year. And more than 100,000 marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. Oceans support life on earth. Scientists think up to 70% of our oxygen comes from tiny ocean plants call phytoplankton. Over to you Patricia. My name’s Jack.

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>> PATRICIA: Thank you Max. My name’s Patricia and I am here with Maddy, Mackenzie and Abigail from Bedford Primary School to tell us more about the project and how the children have succeeded in achieving so many pledges. You’ve set yourselves a big challenge, what made you want to tackle this global problem?

>> MACKENZIE: Well we have been learning about the plastic crisis and everyone was shocked about what is happening to our planet. So we decided we just had to do something to help.

>> PATRICIA: So what exactly is an eco-brick? Can you tell us more?

>> MACKENZIE: An eco-brick looks like this. It’s a plastic bottle that is completely filled with small pieces of plastic to make it strong. We’ve been collecting lots of single use plastic and bringing it into school.

>> PATRICIA: So you’ve got all the plastic and what happens next?

>> MACKENZIE: We have to wash and try all the plastic and then cut them into tiny pieces. Then we have to stuff it into the bottles and weigh them to make sure they are hard enough to build with.

>> PATRICIA: How many bricks have you made and what are you planning to do with them?

>> MACKENZIE: We now have over 80 bottles and we want to use them to build a friendship bench on our playground for us to sit on with our friends.

>> PATRICIA: So Maddy and Abigail how did you get involved?

>> MADDY: We heard about a memorial event at a local park to remember the 96 people who died at the Hillsborough disaster. They wanted to release 96 red balloons, and this concerned us.

>> ABIGAIL: We knew that the balloons could land in the ocean and could harm our wildlife so I wrote a letter asking if we could paint 96 red balloons pins instead. They agreed and our balloons are on display for everyone to see and remember.

>> PATRICIA: So you’ve made people remember and helped wildlife at the same time. What a wonderful achievement. Now over to Lexie who is with Professor Alfie Roach to give his expert opinion on the plastic crisis and what we can do to solve it. Goodbye.

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>> LEXIE: Thanks Patricia. Here’s my conversation with Alfie Roach from earlier today. He explained why the work that the Bedford Primary School children have done is so important. Welcome to the show Alfie.

>> ALFIE: Thank you for having me.

>> LEXIE: The children at the school have really taken up this eco-challenge and are dedicated to the pledges they have made. As an expert in this field can you tell us more about how single use plastic is affecting our environment?

>> ALFIE: The children are right to be worried about this. There are some very frightening statistics about plastic in our oceans. For example, 10% of all dead animals found in the beach clean-ups around the world were entangled in plastic bags. And 53% of turtles are known to have eaten plastic and the rubbish in our ocean.

>> LEXIE: That’s quite shocking. How does that impact on the long term?

>> ALFIE: There are 700 species of animals severely threatened because of plastic waste in the ocean. Those species may die out completely if we don’t take action.

>> LEXIE: So what can we do about it?

>> ALFIE: We can all make a difference no matter how small. As well as their brilliant beach clean the school is doing small everyday things that make a real difference. For example, every child drinks from a reusable water bottle. The school recycles crisp bags and has stopped using straws and cartons at lunch time.

>> LEXIE: Yes, I’ve been blown away by everything they’ve pledged and actually done as a whole school team.

>> ALFIE: It’s so important for schools to address this issue and that children become aware of the damage we are doing to our planet. After all they’ll be the ones who will have to continue looking after our planet in the future.

>> LEXIE: So how would you do some more? What would you say to our viewers at home?

>> ALFIE: If like Bedford Primary School everyone pledged to make one change and use less single use plastic it would make a huge difference. Everyone has a responsibility to look after our planet and the creatures that live here alongside us.

>> LEXIE: Great information there Alfie. Thank you for that. This has been Sky News with Lexie Helm. Until next time have a good evening and keep looking after our planet.

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>> KAY BURLEY: Thanks to the team at Sky Academy Skill Studios. That’s the end of our special report. I’m Kay Burley, thank you for watching.

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