7 Easy Ways to Reduce Plastic Waste in Schools

How to reduce plastic waste in schools is one of the habits that can be done to preserve the environment from hazardous waste. The school environment is one of the most conducive environments to familiarize a certain routine. Not only a place to learn, schools also become places to socialize, interact, and adapt to the environment. Therefore, one of the habits to maintain the ecosystem and cleanliness of the environment needs to be established.

There are various types of plastic waste that unknowingly come from the school environment. To reduce it, not only students, everyone in the school also needs to get used to this effort.

1. Get Used to Bringing Your Own Eating Utensils

This habit is usually quite popular to do since early childhood education. Usually, lunchtime becomes a much-anticipated time for children. Lunch boxes become one of the interesting tools to use every day. With the choice of colors and cute characters on the lunch boxes, children will be happy to use eating utensils.

2. Get Used to Not Buying Food with Plastic Packaging

If you are already used to bringing your own eating utensils, there is no need to be embarrassed to buy food without plastic packaging. For example, when buying siomay or ketoprak, ask the canteen staff to place it in your own container. So, there is no need to use plastic packaging or eating utensils anymore.

3. Provide Drinking Water Refill Stations

Schools can also provide drinking water refill stations. So, students, teachers, and other school staff only need to bring their own water bottles. This will reduce the waste of bottled drinking water that can pollute the environment.

4. Switch to Using Wooden Pencils

Unbeknownst to many, the use of mechanical pencils can also pollute the environment, especially pencils made of plastic. To be more environmentally friendly, the use of wooden pencils is actually recommended because their waste can decompose more quickly and organically. Also provide pencil sharpeners to make the use of pencils at school more practical and comfortable.

5. Create a Plastic Waste Bank

The process of sorting organic waste and plastic waste also needs to be established in schools. It is understandable that the use of plastic is still difficult to reduce. Not only that, processing plastic waste is also not easy. Therefore, creating a waste bank at school becomes one of the solutions to collect plastic waste and recycle it according to its type.

6. Implement a Clean Friday Routine

The potential for hazardous plastic waste occurs when bottle or food packaging waste accidentally falls to the ground. This will contaminate the soil with harmful chemical substances that are dangerous for water. A Clean Friday routine can be implemented to clean up plastic waste that is hidden so that the environment remains clean.

7. Hold a Recycling Competition

In addition to bringing reusable utensils, separating types of plastic waste is also beneficial for reuse. Yes, usable plastic bottle waste can be creatively transformed into plant pots, decorative lights, and much more. To make it more interesting, hold regular competition activities that can also hone students' creativity at school.

Well, those are some simple things that can be established in schools. Remember, all routines need to be practiced not only by students but also by teachers and all staff at the school, even food vendors in the canteen. If all components of the school community work together, the dangers of plastic waste can be minimized optimally.

Author: Rizkita Darajat