SCHOOL PLASTIC FREE MOVEMENT

Erasmus+ Project KA3 – Support for Policy Reform 621506-EPP-1-2020-1-IT-EPPKA3-IPI-SOC-IN 

We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children (Indian proverb)

We live in a society overrun with plastic and petroleum products. Our daily habits are destroying the planet’s ecosystem putting life on planet earth at risk. For years, all the appeals in this regard have not been heard and we have come to a time when, through the air, food, and water, each person on average absorbs a quantity of microplastics equal to a credit card every week. It is, therefore, the time to act incisively, to promote a complete change in people’s daily habits, to safeguard the environment, our health and the future of man and of many living species on the planet. The Schools Plastic Free movement has taken its origins from the need to educate future generations, to invent all possible ways to replace the use of plastic with alternative, sustainable and eco-compatible materials. (The movement aims to start from the schools, inviting them with any educational institutions from all over the world to join it. We want to start a process of awareness from children and young people, from their love for nature and for life, to leads them to a transformation in consumption and ecological choices, both for themselves and for the adults around them, in order to give to the new generations a possibility to regain slower rhythms and a more sustainable idea of ​​consumption in daily life. In fact, in the last few decades, the speed and unbridled consumption of any product have become key elements of our daily life: we need to change our way of acting and conceiving life because we have already become an element of disturbance for the planet.  Therefore, the two main  fundamental objectives of the project: to find rhythms closer to nature of which we are an integral part and to produce as little waste as possible). Starting from the school, in the schools themselves, we want to give voice to the students’ creativity to change the habits of adults. The movement is therefore born from below, from students in any schools and educational institutions to begin a process of awareness-raising taking children with their love for nature and life to leads them towards a transformation in consumption influencing adults choices too.

The idea is to encourage pupils from any country in the world to rethink the use they make of plastic in their daily lives, to understand what impact this use can have on the environment (for the production, use, disposal of the object) and to invent and create sustainable alternatives to be used permanently at school or at home. The movement aims to raise awareness and make young people aware of the environmental impact of plastics and to give them the opportunity to be protagonists of a change through their creativity.

The students/pupils/kids of the schools or any institution that will become part of the movement will have to commit themselves to identify a number of plastic objects (as the beginning of a transformation process) to be replaced with other alternative materials (recycled, sustainable, eco-compatible), of their inventions and which they become permanently common objects in the relative educational institutions and that they are shared in a platform with all the ideas that will come from all over the world. Schools and organizations of the Schools Plastic Free movement will create a worldwide community into “nobody less” network for the exchange of good practices, in which each school/organization will present its alternatives to plastic and all related activities. This community will be a space for intercultural dialogue, confrontation and openness to the other that will allow the students involved to see how their commitment can be enormously important for the whole planet. The Schools Plastic Free movement aims to have a political and social impact that can positively influence society through the example provided by the children themselves. Any school or educational private or public organization in the world can freely join the network. Without limits of age, religion, or country.

The objectives of the movement can, therefore, be summarized as:

1. educate children to avoid using plastic and be aware of the environmental problems connected with the use of plastic
2. develop kids creativity to invent material and tools of alternative origin to permanently use instead of plastic in schools
3. create a platform online with all the sharing experiences
4. propose online sharing games, activities, strategies to prevent the use of plastic
5. create a European and extra European movement of schools/ institutions/ NGOs
6. Involve the children’s families in changing their habits and not using plastic anymore
7. create a school brand as a symbol of social involvement in the process
8. Elaborate lesson plans or activities about the plastic effect on human being and the Earth

This community network is linked to the Prosocial Values charter of the “Nobody Less” world Community. More info here:   Prosocial Values Charter

The school plastic-free movement is an integral part of the Nobody Less Community Network