Pupils from Woodside Primary School in Runcorn have helped to remove 8 tonnes of plastic waste from Widnes Warth as part of the ‘Plastic Resolution Project’ developed by the Mersey Gateway Environmental Trust.
The students during the hour long clean-up helped to remove various plastic waste items such as plastic bottles, to food packaging, footballs, car bumpers and tyres. All of which will be suitably recycled.
With the help of the Big Lottery Fund, the community project to attempts to make small but significant changes to our local environment through action and education.
Paul Oldfield, Company Secretary of the MGET said: “It is fascinating to see what can be collected by 20 children in just the one hour. Plastics are a big problem when it comes to environmental pollution. A major cause of this is littering and mismanaged plastic waste. Plastic bottles and food packaging are often washed into our rivers and travel downstream into our oceans. Some of it is deposited on the saltmarsh by the tides. Without cleaning the saltmarshes, more and more plastics will accumulate and pollute the local environment.”
Damaging our environments and aquatic wildlife, the Plastic Resolution Project comes at a time of national spotlight on the increasing and challenging problem of plastic waste. Most notably through the Governments “25 Year Environment Plan” and through recent television series such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II, it is clear more than ever that more needs to be done to minimise plastic waste.
Dr Andrea Dewitt, Biodiversity Manager at the MGET said; “We’re engaging with local schools and other organisations including the Widnes Vikings, to talk about how we can improve our own lifestyle to combat the problem of plastics. It is only a small contribution to the global problem, but by starting the change now is vital and through action and education we hope that we can set the tone for the future, engaging with local schools and the wider community.”
The Trust is planning to deliver more clean-up sessions across the year and would invite anyone who wished to get involved from schools to community groups, to get in touch via www.mget.org.uk or by emailing environmentaltrust@merseygateway.co.uk.