Tipperary students cutting down on plastic bottle waste at their school

 Students at Carrick-on- Suir's Presentation Primary School are slashing their school's plastic waste by 6000 bottles a month by the simple measure of using re-usable water bottles for lunch. 

The school  issued re-usable water bottles to its 300 students and installed new drinking water taps in all its classrooms earlier this month in a bid to radically reduce the amount of single-use plastic bottles waste the school uses.

Presentation Primary School Acting Principal Anne Millea said lunches are provided for students at the school daily as they are a Deis designated school. The lunches included bottles of water until  the drinking water taps were installed by Glanmore Foods, which supplies the lunches to the school.  

Glanmore Foods is also installing drinking water taps at other Deis schools around the country, according to Ms Millea. 

The impact of the school's new policy has been instant and dramatic. Ms Millea said the re-usable bottles and water taps have reduced the number of single-use waste plastic bottles produced in the school by 1500 a week and 6000 a month. 

"Everyone at the school is delighted with the reduction in plastic waste we have achieved," said Ms Millea. "There is a huge awareness among pupils about plastic waste and this has just opened their eyes to the amount of plastic we have and have to get rid of." 

She said the students and staff of the Presentation would love other schools to follow their example and introduce the same measures to cut down on single-use plastic bottles. 

The plastic waste reduction policy is part of the school's wider An Taisce Green Flag environmental awareness programme. 

Ms Millea said the school  has to date earned six Green Flags with waste recycling and reduction key elements of the environmental projects  undertaken by students to achieve the flags. 

The school is currently in the second year of its preparations to achieve a seventh Green Flag with global citizenship and energy as the main theme. 

Ms Millea said students are learning about climate change, how plastic waste impacts on the world's enviroment and are taking measures in the school to reduce and conserve energy consumption ranging from turning off lights to turning off computers and appliances when they are not in use.