Guardian Centres Embrace Plastic Free July!
https://www.guardian.edu.au/preschool/This July, Guardian centres across Australia are getting on board with the plastic free challenge. Plastic Free July challenges people to give up single-use plastics for the month of July to help bring awareness to this growing environmental issue.
We find out just what some of our centres are getting up to this Plastic Free July.
Margaret Street Early Learning Centre, Sydney CBD
This Sydney CBD childcare centre has replaced their old plates, bowls and cups with plates made from bamboo. These bamboo sets are biodegradable so if one breaks they can be put back into the garden. They’re also reusable, dishwasher safe, heat resistant to 120 degrees, BPA free and Melamine free, as well as designed and made in Australia.
Centre Manager Lisa Colcannon says the children are hypothesising about where plastic might go, what other materials we could use besides plastic and what will we do with the plates we have now. “Some ideas about what we will do with the plates are to give them to Reverse Garbage or perhaps a shelter for people who may not have any bowls or plates. We are excited to see how these go and with the children – if we have any broken plates in three years’ time it will be great to see if they have gone back into the soil.”
Playdays Preschool and Day Care Centre Rouse Hill, NSW
The children at Playdays Rouse Hill have been undertaking a six month long project on respect, and Plastic Free July comes as part of this project. It started by discussing how people can be kind to others and evolved into creating a habitat for the blue tongue that visits our garden, and then into looking after the environment, and now researching animals that are suffering due to pollution, and into how we may help these animals.
These are a few drawings and observations from the children.
Playdays Preschool and Day Care Centre Acacia Gardens, NSW
One of the families at Playdays in Acacia Gardens has been working on their own plastic free project for a year. To help and inspire other families at the centre, the parent provided this very helpful document – there are some great tips in there!
Playdays Preschool and Day Care Centre Wahroonga, NSW
Centre Manager Annette Buxton says the centre has been very busy throughout the month of Plastic Free July. From Nursery through to Preschool the educators and children have been sharing their ideas and voices about how we can reduce the use of plastic – the Preschool children are particularly worried that the whales might get sick from all of the plastic bags. “We are excited to see where this will take us over the month of July and beyond!” says Annette.
Acre Woods Pymble, NSW
When Plastic Free July kicked off, the children in the toddler rooms at Acre Woods Pymble had discussions around what it all means. Centre Manager, Ruth Escott says, “During group time we looked at some plastic items and then compared them to reusable items that are better for the environment. We will continue to learn about Plastic Free July throughout the month.”
Wallaby Street, Central Coast NSW
The centre has been holding a toy swap this Plastic free July! “At Wallaby Street, we have implemented a toy swap to encourage our families to reuse instead of throw out. As a way to reduce our plastic footprint, we provided the opportunity for families to bring in their old toys and swap for something else. A few days in and the response has been amazing!” says Sarah Flanagan, Wallaby Street’s Centre Manager.
Guardian Early Learning Centre – Bruce, ACT
Guardian Bruce have designed their own Plastic Free July bags. The preschoolers at the centre designed their own turtle logos and their plastic free bags will be on sale to our educators and families to buy during July with 100% of the money being donated directly to the Sea Turtle Conservation Australia. The preschoolers had a blast learning to make bees wax wrappers that were also placed inside the bags for families.
More in the ACT…
- Allara Street has stopped using bin liners for paper recycling
- Wanniassa is completely free of laminating
- Forrest are going to stop the practice of individually bagging each soiled nappy which will result in 100s of bags not entering landfill
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