At an age when a lot of students are unaware or at least not very worried about earth sustainability, an eleven year old boy from Kings’ Dubai School has set an example for every single one us, by leading a campaign to reduce single-use plastic consumption at his school.
Little crusader Beau Fountain is an ambassador of Drop It Youth, a UAE-based initiative which aims to empower young individuals, from 11 to 22 years old, to campaign against single-use plastic pollution.
Young Beau planned the campaign with admirable passion that included designing a website where his class could record each day the number of plastic items they didn’t use, and creating a video presentation to explain the concept to staff and fellow students.
In just one week, word spread like wildfire and over 246 students in the school participated in the campaign by logging in the details of plastic items they consciously did not use to support the campaign.
The campaign successfully managed to reduce the consumption by a total of 3,025 plastic items, including plastic bottles, plastic cutlery, straws and plastic bags.
Speaking on the success of the campaign, Mr Higgins, Principal of Kings’ School Dubai said, “According to the statistics, 90% of the trash in the oceans is from plastic. On an average, a family throws out 400-600 water bottles per year and 80% of these plastic water bottles aren’t recycled and end up in landfills. Therefore, it is critical to inculcate environmentally-conscious behaviour amongst children at a young age.”
Emily Leggate, Year 5 Teacher and Social Community and Social Responsibility Leader added, “The Plastic Reduction Week has been useful not only to reduce the consumption of single-use plastic but also to increase awareness amongst the students about the harmful effect of plastic to the environment. We have witnessed keen interest from students during this week to participate in the campaign and we hope that the students continue to reduce the usage of single-use plastic as part of their lifestyle in the future as well.”
Beau Fountain said, “I’m thankful to my principal and teachers for giving me the opportunity and their support to execute this campaign and it is great to see the participation from everyone at school. I believe that there is a need to reduce the consumption of plastic, as it causes significant harm to our ocean and the marine life.”