Film: St Mary's Catholic Primary School

Transcript

[INTRO MUSIC]

>> KAY: Hello there. I’m Kay Burley, reporting for Sky News. We have an important Sky News exclusive. We head now to Studio 1 at Sky Academy Skills Studios.

 >> BETHAN: Hello. Good afternoon and welcome to Sky News. My name is Bethan.

 >> THOMAS: And I’m Thomas.

 >> BETHAN: As you know, plastic pollution is becoming a real problem, with experts predicting that there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050. Every day, approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans. 1 million plastic bottles are bought every minute around the world, and that number will top half a trillion by 2021. Less than half of those bottles end up getting recycled.

 >> THOMAS: A primary school in Wrexham, North Wales, wanted to make a difference and strongly believe that educating their town and their school about reusing and recycling plastic was extremely important, through their pledge ‘Think and Reuse’. One of the things that the ‘Think and Reuse’ pledge allows St Mary’s Catholic Primary School to do was to reuse plastic bottles which were collected to make a greenhouse patch for the growing garden in the school grounds.

 >> BETHAN: Showing that there are many ways we can reuse everyday plastic in our daily lives, without throwing it away into the ocean. But why have they become so involved in tackling plastic and what have they done?

 >> THOMAS: All right, let’s go live to see Enya and Izzie to investigate further.

 >> IZZIE: Thank you, Bethan and Thomas. Good afternoon. My name is Izzie.

 >> ENYA: And my name is Enya and we are reporting live from Wrexham, North Wales to carry on today’s topic of Sky Ocean Rescue and fight to save our oceans.

 >> IZZIE: Year 3 children from St Mary’s Catholic Primary School have been busy investigating plastic and recycling as a part of their packaging topic.

 >> ENYA: Did you know, if we don’t stop plastic now, by 2050 there’ll be more plastic than fish in the ocean.

 >> IZZIE: Because of this, and as a result of internal and external bin audits and a visit from Plastipak, St Mary’s decided to do something about it.

 >> ENYA: The children at St Mary’s realised that Wrexham and their school needed to do more to help the environment and reduce plastic.

 >> CHILD 1 VOICEOVER: We created the ‘Think and Reuse’ pledge and began to educate people through school and parents’ assemblies.

 >> CHILD 2 VOICEOVER: In school, we also created a crisps packet recycling programme.

 >> CHILD 3 VOICEOVER: And our (inaudible 02.56) of building loads of plastic bottle greenhouses.

 >> ENYA: More of us need to spread the word about this terrible effect plastic has on our environment, and next time you use plastic remember to think first and definitely reuse.

 >> IZZIE: Now, let’s hand you over to Amelia, who’s at St Mary’s School speaking with the students, for more on this topic.

 >> ENYA AND IZZIE: Goodbye.

 >> AMELIA: Thanks, Izzie. With me now are Rebecca and Ruby, Year 3 students from St Mary’s Primary School, who have first-hand experience on the issue. So, Rebecca, why do you think Year 3 wanted to get so involved in reducing plastic in your area?

 >> REBECCA: Well, in the school disco we noticed that we used a lot of plastic. After bin audits in our school and around Wrexham, we noticed there were no recycling bins in our area. We also learned about the effect plastic is having on our world. We were so shocked that we wanted to do something to help. We therefore wrote to the Mayor of Wrexham, our head teacher and Plastipak, telling them how important it is to recycle and asking for recycling bins. As a result, Plastipak donated recycling bins for the school, and the mayor forwarded our concerns to the correct department. We are also going to be featured in a blog on the Wrexham Council website, educating people about recycling. Our head teacher let us introduce several recycling schemes into our school, and encouraged staff to reuse materials to make new craft displays and even class stationery, like this pencil pot.

 >> AMELIA: Wow, that’s great. Now, Ruby, what else have you done to reduce plastic pollution?

 >> RUBY: We also designed ‘refill not landfill’ posters and asked local cafes to display them, to encourage people to refill their water bottles instead of new ones. We now use paper cups in all events, such as sports day and discos, and the dinner ladies have now begun sorting their food and packaging, so that plastic can be easily washed and recycled.

 >> AMELIA: It sounds like you all have been very busy. Super work.

 >> RUBY: Yes, even though we have already done lots already, we want to continue to educate people because it is our world and we need to protect it.

 >> AMELIA: Very true. That’s great. Now, back to the studios with Asteria and Freya, who are debating whether plastic should be banned in school.

 >> JAMIE: Thank you, Amelia, My name is Jamie. Now, with 8 million pieces of plastic pollution finding their way into our oceans, St Mary’s investigated and debated whether we should ban plastic in school. Well, let’s head over to Bill, who will give us more information on the impact plastic is having on us.

 >> BILL: Plastic is causing huge problems for the environment and killing 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and 1 million sea birds every year. Every year, we buy around 3.7 million tonnes of plastic products in the UK. Much of this plastic is packaging, with only 842,000 tonnes being recycled and the rest ends up in landfill.

 >> JAMIE: With me in the studio today, I have Freya and Asteria, Year 3 students from St Mary’s School. Thank you both for joining me. Tell us about what you have investigated and the outcomes of this.

 >> ASTERIA: Hi. Thanks for having us. All of us in Year 3, all agree that plastic is causing huge problems for the environment. We initially wanted to ban plastic altogether, but after a visit from Mr Courtney from Plastipak, we learned that plastic can be a good thing if you are responsible and recycle it correctly.

 >> FREYA: Did you know that enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth 4 times? But if we recycle plastic, we can make lots of new things like t-shirts, sweaters, tables and benches. It only takes about 10 bottles to make enough plastic fibre to make a cool, new t-shirt and it only takes seconds to throw away your used plastic in the correct bin.

 >> JAMIE: So, plastic can be a good thing?

 >> ASTERIA: Yes, plastic can be made to make reusable items such as lunchboxes and bottles, but schools and homes should avoid using single-use plastic. I know it can be difficult, but we can really make a difference.

 >> JAMIE: So, what is your overall opinion?

 >> FREYA: We believe we shouldn’t ban plastic in school. We should recycle. We should use reusable items instead, like lunchboxes, bottles and stationery, but most importantly, think what else we can use the plastic for, when they are recycled or reused.

 >> ASTERIA: That’s why in St Mary’s we are passionate about educating the school and Wrexham about the importance of reducing the amount of plastic we use, and to recycle.

 >> JAMIE: People definitely need to think and reuse what they have. Coming up, we have an exclusive interview. Stay tuned.  With me, I have a very special guest, Emily, a Sky Ocean Rescue Ambassador. So, what do you do, for the viewers at home?

 >> EMILY: So, I spend my time sailing around the world, looking at plastic pollution that ends up in our ocean in these accumulation zones. Because of the wind and the currents, it takes all that plastic from land and it ends up there, and so we do scientific research to understand the impact it’s having on the sea creatures and also what we can do about it.

 >> JAMIE: What advice can you give us?

 >> EMILY: My biggest bit of advice would be for every time you see and are about to use a piece of plastic, think, ‘Do I really need to use this plastic?’ Whether it’s in your lunchbox or when you’re at the supermarket, just think, ‘Could I do without it?’ and it’s really going to be the ocean, and the sea creatures who live there, who’ll be thankful for you taking action in using less plastic.

 >> JAMIE: Thank you again for coming, Emily. This is the end of the show. Goodbye.

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

 [EXIT MUSIC]