Plastic Free July: Beauchamp College Eco Club

The Beauchamp Eco Club has been running for years, with Mrs Sword, Head of Reprographics, taking the reins just three years ago.

Under her watchful eye, the club, comprising around 20 members, have undertaken a broad range of environmental activities, all designed to conserve natural beauty and protect the planet.

A group of litter-pickers called the ‘Beauchamp Bin Bandits’ were set up to ensure any discarded litter is picked up, thus ensuring a clean and inviting site.

The club also grow a variety of fruit and vegetable plants and heavily promote recycling; one example being the creation of gift tags made from Christmas cards. The club are also working towards applying for the Eco Schools Green Flag.

For Plastic Free July this month, the Beauchamp Eco Club are promoting and selling reusable water bottles, complete with the eco logo emblazoned on. Costing just £3.15, the motivation behind these bottles is to discourage staff and students buying plastic water bottles. Additionally, they have collected 2000 green drinks bottles which they plan to use to create a plastic greenhouse.

Furthermore, the Eco Club have helped to introduce a no laminate policy as they found that as paper cannot be removed once laminated, many plastic laminating pouches were thrown away. Now, laminates are only used for master copies of specific documents; ones that won’t be thrown away.   

A massive well done to Mrs Sword and all the students involved for their continuous commitment to highlighting key environmental issues.