Amsterdam, 14 January 2019 – The 12-15 year-old age group is responsible for a relatively large amount of litter. Young children understand perfectly well that you should not drop plastic in the environment, but that changes when they become teenagers. Being environmentally aware does not mean you act that environmental awareness. Secondary school children are infamous for the trail of litter they leave behind from the sweet shop to school.
Thanks to two donations by the C&A Foundation, (amounting to almost €50,000) and sponsor campaigns by a number of secondary schools, the Plastic Soup Foundation (PSF) is able to develop special educational materials for this age group. This is being done in cooperation with Globe Nederland, an international network of schools and scientists that study the environment. The lessons handle the causes of, consequences of and possible solutions to plastic soup. The schoolchildren also do their own research into plastic soup, for example by quantifying and analyzing litter near their school.
The lessons for secondary school first and second year pupils is due to be available in the coming school year (2019-2020). This age group is sensitive to social media messages, which is why Youtube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter will be used extensively.
Maria Westerbos, managing director of the Plastic Soup Foundation: “We are especially pleased with the generous donations by the C&A Foundation and a number of schools. This enables us together with Globe Nederland to teach school children about plastic soup, motivate them to stop dropping litter in the environment and above all to reduce their use of plastics.”