As part of our dedication to looking after the environment, and teaching our children to do the same, we are proud to have taken the ‘Plastic Free Pledge’. This is an initiative spear headed by Surfers Against Sewage and which we are 100% behind. Please see our Beach Clean Section of the site for more information on this.
Louise, our manager and owner, has begun the task of spreading the word to other nurseries who we are hoping will follow suit and limit, if not stop, their use of single use plastics. Nurseries by their very nature use so many things in order to keep up the fun levels for the children – but we believe they are not necessary and a much more valuable lesson is to be had in teaching our children to look after the oceans and our entire planet wherever they can.
At Young Friends Nursery and Nature School we have pledged to…
- Ban plastic bags for shopping and other uses (including sandwich bags)
- Ban nappy sacks
- Ban shoe covers
- Ban baby wipes
- Ban straws for events and art projects
- Ban glitter and sequins
- Ask families to provide stainless steel beakers and cups
- Use silicone bibs/tablet covers etc. instead of plastic
- Organize monthly beach cleans
- Systematically eradicate all plastic plates/bowls and cups and replace with stainless steel alternatives
We are mindful of the damage plastic does to our oceans at all times and are continuously eradicating more and more plastic. We organise activities for the children, not only on the beach, but in nursery to help them understand. our team find this aspect of our care very rewarding. Our most recent big effort was our ‘Ocean Awareness Week’ where the team provided many fun activities for the children whilst educating them at the same time. A Young Friends preschooler can often be found talking about looking after the fish and turtles and how and why we do it.
Hopefully this will root itself deeply within our children and they will carry on their good work and will throughout their lives.
This is for the children because this is where looking after the planet starts so we feel it needs more emphasis and with an element of fun, so the children learn to enjoy looking after our world. The recycling station in our outside corridor has taken their understanding to another level. The team periodically take the waste from their rooms with the children to separate with them and explain why etc. They help us recycle plastic, glass, paper, cans, ink cartridges, batteries etc.
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We have been studying the effects of plastic on our ‘Blue Planet’ for a long while and we feel passionately that one of the most important things in the world now is to instill an understanding and a feeling of protection towards our world and its/our plant life and creatures. If all little people were taught this our troubles could be greatly improved in years to come and maximize our future generations, chances of survival. So, we feel it is our duty to do our bit….
We have been phasing out plastic equipment in our nursery for some time now. Every day we seem get eradicate something else and find it’s natural counterpart – this week we have taken straws off the agenda. These are used frequently for art projects such as blowing paint, making bubbles etc. We now have stainless steel straws which will be a permanent fixture (don’t worry we have enough for a whole group and brushes to clean them with afterwards) in the art cupboard. Please think about purchasing these at home if your children love straws – or keep a couple in your bag for when you go to a restaurant so you don’t have to encourage this wasteful and unnecessary element of fun/luxury.
We have recently asked our lovely willing parents politely to get on board with saving those sea creatures and take away your plastic bottles and replace them with stainless steel, or silicone ones. We know they are a bit more expensive, but they last so much longer, are environmentally friendly and are more hygienic than the plastic ones. They require placing less often meaning in the long run it is cost effective. New parents are asked to bring in environmentally friendly drinking vessels for their children from the off.
We have stopped using these completely. This could not have happened soon enough for us. The amount of nappy sacks that go home every day containing wet/dirty clothes and that we use to put away dirty nappies is painful to see, and we just don’t want to be doing it any more. We have had this suggestion from a few parents and we couldn’t agree more – hopefully there is no reason to disagree that this is unnecessarily wasteful and harmful to the environment. We know some of you do this already (I don’t think the team have been utilising these as much as they should, but they will from now on we promise) but please can you all purchase cloth waterproof bags for us to put your child’s clothes to go home in. We won’t have normal nappy bags on the premises so we are afraid if there are no cloth bags available in your child’s bag the we/dirty clothes will be put straight in. Here is a link to long lasting cloth bags which we ask our parents/carers to keep in their children’s bags.
We have purchased some just in case for our parents – we give them to parents at cost price. If your bag doesn’t don’t turn up in your bags with your child you will be able to purchase one. We ask our parents and carers to try and make sure they are always there.
We have stopped using shoe covers. These also support a seriously unnecessary production of plastic which again will not biodegrade. If you really find it hard to take off your shoes here is a link to buying your own long-lasting ones which you can keep with you. We just couldn’t justify this disposable use of plastic any longer. We have purchased a few pairs of long lasting shoe covers which we urge you only to use if you are less than mobile or find it uncomfortable to take off your shoes. These are kept in the lobby for those who need them and we ask for them to be put back on exit so others can use them.
We do not use plastic bags for our weekly shop. Not much else to say about that one – it’s a no brainer.
