Environmental News this week : Air Pollution

We read 2 articles from the UK this week, one was called "Dirty air is killing our children. Why does the government let this happen?" and the other one, published just the next day, suggests we should start worrying more about pollution than economic growth.

"My youngest daughter’s school has been trying to protect its children from the toxic cloud in which they work and play. The teachers know how much damage traffic pollution does to their lungs, hearts and brains. They know that it reduces their cognitive development, their ability to concentrate and their capacity for exercise."

Read more here


In this article a survey says there were 8,700 premature deaths this year by air pollution in London. The author says we should think about things that are more important than economic growth like air pollution.

Waste Reduction Workshop - 1º ESO

During enrichment on Thursday afternoon, in the environmental club, we had a no-waste workshop. The successful workshop explained about the consequences of wasting plastic and where it goes. It also taught us new ways of reusing packaging and making smart decisions when it comes to buying things with plastic. Aimee Von Vliet is a zero waste campaigner and was the person that transmitted all this information. She made us reflect on the amount of plastic we use during our lives and showed us that plastic is practically part of our lives. She demonstrated the differences between items with plastic and items with no plastic. The thing that surprised us the most was seeing how simple it actually is to use less plastic in our daily lives. We really enjoyed this workshop. 

Elena & Iciar, 1º ESO

We also learnt some more "R"s! Next time you are offered a free plastic item that you don't need (a straw or an unnecessary free gift) just refuse!!

- Refuse

- Reduce

- Reuse

- Recycle

- Rot

- Dispose

European Week of Waste Reduction: 18 - 26 November

The European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) 2017 will take place from 18 to 26 November, with awareness-creating actions about sustainable resource and waste management taking place all over Europe. In the spotlight of the EWWR is to raise awareness about how to reduce waste, how to reuse products and recycle materials.

Oak House School is participating in 2 ways...

1) We are sharing this week in the newsletter, and around the school our TOP 5 WAYS to reduce plastic (This is an initiative by the #NOPLASTIC campaign)

2) On Thursday the 23rd November we are inviting special guest Aimee Van Vliet to give a workshop on waste reduction, the idea behind her #zerowaste campaign and to get us thinking about why and how we can use resources more efficiently. Aimee is working in education for schools and communities and is an eco-entrepreneur.

Environmental News this week..

Delhi is completely smogged out! The air pollution is so bad that breathing is like smoking 50 cigarettes. This articles tells us more about the problem, but we are learning that air pollution is a massive problem on our planet.

This graph, shows how much air pollution affects us around the world:

#NOPLASTIC

This picture makes us very sad... are we going backwards??!!!

But some good news..

Here's a video that shows other biodegradable options instead of plastic!!

#NOPLASTIC

In environmental we are doing a campaign to reduce plastic use, we are called the #NOPLASTIC team and we would like it if you could help us. This subject has already been mentioned many times in our school, but sadly very few people listen or do anything to improve this. That is why we are trying to reduce plastic use ourselves and also persuade other people to do it to. That is how we got the idea of putting an article about this in the newsletter.

We think people should try to reuse or reduce the amount of plastic they consume since it is
extremely bad for nature, it takes a very long time to disintegrate. Experts have investigated this
subject and have observed that the amount of plastic has increased by a large quantity over recent
years.

Why should we reduce plastic?

One of the main reasons to reduce plastic is the fact that there is now about 5 plastic islands
in the world in the ocean. This is an extremely bad situation because there is more pollution
and more fish are dying. One of the plastic islands is situated in the north part of the Pacific Ocean,
and the Caribbean Sea is not as perfect as we thought is was, some zones are now full of rubbish
and you can hardly believe it is the same Caribbean you see in the photos on our previous blog post.

Another mayor issue is that plastic takes a very long time to disintegrate and with the
massive quantity of plastic we use per year we will have too much plastic on Earth . An
everyday grocery bag takes 10-20 years , a plastic bottle takes 450.

How to reduce plastic:

A really basic way of trying to reduce plastic is to not get the plastic bags that they offer in the
super market, one of these bags takes 10 years to disintegrate.

We are Gabriela Herrera, Abril Marlí, Julia Barragán, Lucia, Carlotta Erroz, and we say #NOPLASTIC !!!

Environmental news this week....

The world was shocked by photos showing seas of rubbish instead of the turquoise Caribbean sea we always imagine..

and we have seen a campaign here in Catalunya to encourage recycling which will stop more plastic getting into the oceans. Maybe you recognise this?

We are pleased to announce that this week we are launching our very own #noplastic campaign from a group of students in the Environmental Club... look out for the posters around school and see what you can do to reduce plastic waste!!  See more here

REDUCE

REUSE

RECYLCE