Plastic Waste, Schools and Play Equipment

Yet again, it has been featured in the news quite a lot recently about the whole issue of global warming and its catastrophic effects on the planet if we do not get to grips with controlling the earth’s temperature rises. And of course within this whole environmental issue is the very important matter of plastic waste.

Of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic which are produced each year worldwide, only 9% of it is recycled which is quite a staggering statistic. But I can perhaps understand why because if countries do not have in place adequate systems for controlling such waste, it basically ends up as litter which is discarded just as easily as it was purchased. And every year 8 million metric tons of this plastic ends up in the world’s oceans – a feature which was so brilliantly covered by the BBC’s recent Blue Planet series with David Attenborough.

So where do schools come into this? Quite significantly so in fact and this is perhaps more to do with educating and fostering a mind set of environmental awareness more than anything else. The Eco Schools programme is already doing a fantastic job of making sure that schools sign up to their programme and are aware of the whole environmental agenda. Plus their reach is worldwide – the programme now runs in 67 countries and engages 19.5 million children. Their motto is “Empowering Children and Teens to Improve Our Environment”.

If the children of today are made aware, at an early age, of the problems facing the planet and are taught ways of altering their behaviour to deal with it, then I think we are in with a chance. One would hope that it would become a natural mindset to them so instead of just simply throwing away..or worse littering…those used plastic milk cartons, they would recycle them instead. Every time.

And this is one of the major reasons why we have just developed a range of school playground equipment which is manufactured entirely out of recycled plastic. I cannot think of a better way to demonstrate to children the recycling practice in action. For example, one of our pieces of trim trail play equipment uses the equivalent of 2500 plastic bottles and another benefit is that it drastically reduces the need for more landfill sites around the world. There is actually a very good charity in the UK called RECOUP which promotes the whole recycling initiative to households and which looks to change how we act and think about plastic waste.

As well as providing excellent eco credentials for a school, recycled plastic play equipment also has lots of other numerous benefits – it doesn’t rot or corrode, it doesn’t splinter and it lasts a lot longer than traditional timber. Its life expectancy is five times more so in fact.

For more information on our eco friendly products for the school playground, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or visit www.hideouthouse.com