Many schools have made positive moves in building a foundation to develop “No Plastic Waste” schools. This is a move to raise awareness of environmental protection for teachers, employees, parents and students, helping them gradually form the habit of sorting waste at source, practice waste reduction, and change their behavior of using single-use plastic.
As part of the activities of a “Zero Waste School”, Ngo Gia Tu High School and Duy Tan High School (Phu Yên province) have issued “Regulations on Reducing Plastic Waste”. These are the first two schools in Phu Yen to issue documents on reducing plastic waste.
To attract positive responses from many students, especially Youth Union members, Ngo Gia Tu High School’s Youth Union has included the requirements for a “Zero Waste” school into the emulation regulation for Youth Unions, this emphasizes the “Principle of Five Don’ts”: DO NOT release balloons during public holidays and activities; DO NOT use disposable water bottles; DO NOT print posters during school-wide activities; DO NOT use plastic to wrap books; and DO NOT use single-use plastic.
Duy Tan School promotes the model of a “Zero Waste School”, and issues a document with the requirements: Waste must be sorted right from the source in order to make efficient use of waste resources, and reuse waste; minimize the use of single-use plastic products as they are difficult to decompose, to reduce plastic pollution and protect the living environment. As a large-scale school, the school’s Board of Directors also issued specific regulations on garbage classification, recycling and limiting single-use plastic for separate areas such as the canteen, dormitories, classroom areas and buildings.
With the goal of creating a foundation for the transition to a “Zero Waste” School, the two schools want these regulations to help teachers and students be more conscious in protecting the environment, not only in school but also at home and in public.
