Plastic waste reduction in schools

This is a topic inside the Thanh Khe district's plastic waste management plan for 2021, which is being co-led by World Wild Fund-Vietnam and the locality.

The training event gathered 130 participants, including managers and teachers from Thanh Khe district's 36 preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools. It seeks to increase subjects' knowledge and understanding of environmental protection principles, laws, and legal provisions, as well as the adverse impacts of plastic waste, particularly single-use plastic goods.

According to the head of Thanh Khe district's Natural Resource and Environment Department, the unit and WWF-Vietnam are coordinating the training course's initiatives. In which WWF-Vietnam creates material and information about plastic pollution for the public.

Mr. Le Trung Minh Tan, Head of the Thanh Khe District's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, stated that students are immediate benefits and have a beneficial effect on the whole society. Following the training, teachers return to their schools to promote the idea to students, encouraging them to comprehend and practice at school.

Additionally, when students return home, they will help share information with other family members, resulting in a rapid spread. Additionally, we describe propaganda as a long-term process.

"Adults' conduct is truly governed by the "practice makes perfect" credo, which is notoriously difficult to modify. As a result, the simplest subjects to notice and follow our students, and we wish to educate them beginning while they are still in school. They will approach positive behaviors and then grasp, comprehend, and retain them," Mr. Tan explained.

To demonstrate the harmful consequences of wastes in general and plastic wastes in particular, educators and teachers were brought on a field trip to the Khanh Son garbage dump. As a consequence of what they experienced on this field trip, the truth of the present trash crisis will become clear to everyone, ensuring that following propaganda has a greater impact.

"After a period of deployment, it will perform an evaluation and gather experience. The material that works well will be reproduced in other schools in the vicinity, while the stuff that does not will be modified. This concept was started in May, but because pupils have been unable to attend school owing to the objective cause of the Covid-19 pandemic, it cannot be implemented," Tan stated.

The provisions of the agreement between the Thanh Khe District Department of Natural Resources and Environment and WWF-Vietnam to adopt the model "School without plastic waste" include the following: Waste audits in schools (investigate background data on the status of waste at school, how much plastic waste and daily living habits of students and teachers at school).

Experts from WWF-Vietnam and relevant functional units will assist schools in drafting and executing action plans to decrease plastic trash in schools based on the audit results. Teachers and pupils will get training and propaganda as part of the anticipated strategy. Simultaneously, assist instructors in incorporating these elements into lectures, after-school subjects, extracurricular events, and activities under the flag for progressive absorption by pupils.

"After that, we may plan a festival or event, such as a creative contest to raise plastic trash awareness or a waste recycling contest to assist youngsters in promoting their spirit during a propaganda time. And at the conclusion of the model, we will summarize and assess the data in comparison to the time of the original audit," explained Thanh Khe District's Head of Natural Resources and Environment Department.