This week the classes are finding out if we have a problem with litter in our school grounds.

Classes are taking it in turns to collect and weigh the litter found in our playgrounds after morning break.

Normally Mr King, our janitor, does a fantastic job of collecting litter but this week we have asked him NOT to collect any!

We hope we will then get a true idea of the litter that is left in our playground.

• On Monday P4 collected only 150g of litter.  They felt that NO there wasn’t a litter problem but we could still do better.  They suggested making posters to remind people to put their rubbish in the bins.
• On Tuesday P3 collected 480g of litter which was more than 3 times yesterday’s amount. Most of the litter was plastic. P3 say YES we have a litter problem! They think we should provide bins for plastic items to go into.
• On Wednesday P6 collected a massive 1230g of litter!! This was a huge amount and this shocked the class as they thought that they weren’t going to find much litter.  They found most of the litter in corners and at the edges of the upper stages playground.  They also found quite a lot behind the bike shelter.  Maybe the wind blew the litter into these places which made it harder to find.  P6 are convinced that YES there is a litter problem.  They have suggested that litter monitors be appointed so that they can remind people to put their rubbish in a bin.  More bins are maybe needed in the school also.
• On Friday P5 collected 300g of litter which that 12 out of 33 pupils didn’t think was a lot but some of them soon changed their mind when they felt how heavy 300g of litter was.  After feeling the weight 30 out of 33 pupils felt that it was a lot of litter to find and so YES we do have a litter problem.

Over the course of the week 2160g (2.16Kg) of litter was collected by the children.  

With all of the above evidence it is clear that although the amounts of litter collected each day aren’t huge (except for Wednesday) we definitely need to do something to reduce the litter in our school.  The Eco -committee will meet today to discuss our findings and they will create an action plan to improve our school litter problem.