At St Osmund’s, our Primary School in South West London, we met the Whale Company. They held a very inspirational talk about their battle to combat Plastic Pollution.
Although plastic can be beneficial – only 24% is recycled, meaning that 76% ends up either in land fill or worse – our rivers and the ocean. There they never biodegrade.
We are a school very close to the River Thames and what they said and showed us was shocking and made us really want to help.
What does the Whale Company do?
Carolyn and Carlos founded The Whale Company 12 years ago after realising that the amount of plastic in our rivers and oceans was rising and killing whales and other marine life. This was long before Blue Planet made us all realise how close we were to environmental catastrophe.
They started making paddle boards using plastic bottles, and have done some very hard paddle marathons in many different countries across Europe. Their action have attracted media attention and changed how many of those countries deal with plastic recycling and use.
They are currently paddling down the Thames from its source to the sea. Next week they will deliver messages and solution ideas to our Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Gove, in Parliament. They hope, as we do, that this will help change the way Great Britain deals with plastic pollution
What do they say?
They told us: ” We know MPs are talking about plastic pollution a lot more today and it’s going in the right direction, but we need to take immediate action – not to just talk about it for years.”
For Carolyn and Carlos, local government needs to be more active because “we’re all confused about how to recycle, it varies between boroughs and needs to be standardised and supermarkets and shops need to understand that we don’t want all this plastic”. Some countries have already been great at banning plastic items, and people’s habits are changing, but now the rest need to follow and act fast.
Raising Money for The Whale Company
We also were proud that the small “charity” we founded at St Osmund’s, H.A.N.D, was able to help raise some money for the Whale Company’s amazing paddle marathon down the Thames.
H.A.N.D stands for Helpless Animals Need Defence – and we are fighting to solve the problem of pollution, deforestation and poaching once and for all. We have the same ambition as all those animal charities fighting for wildlife to thrive again and the Whale Company really moved us into action. We were very proud to sponsor the Whale Company giving roughly 220 pounds from cake sale and speeches.
We might not be able be right by the Thames supporting them by their side, but we will all be thinking of them and we know that they will have a great impact. We wish them a great marathon and best of luck at Parliament.
By : Millie, Isla and Amelie