The Acorn School

Plastic-Free Project

The Acorn School students launched The Acorn School Plastic-Free Project to reduce the use of disposable plastic in our local community. The students were inspired by Liz Bonnin’s brilliant BBC documentary, ‘Drowning in Plastic’.

Liz visited the school in January 2019 to share her experiences on making the programme and to discuss the damage single-use plastic causes to the environment.

Liz Bonnin, Steve Backshall and over 400+ people took the Acorn students' water taste test. The results indicated that there is very little difference in taste between the bottle, filtered and tap water and that only 1 in 3 people could identify which was bottled water.

The campaign was a success generating TV and Radio coverage across the county; it was featured on the BBC regional news and other local station and received acknowledgment from the BBC’s 'War on Plastic' Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

The Acorn School is among the first schools in the district to join the Plastic-Free School scheme by Surfers Against Sewage and to develop a plastic pledge where 100% of the parents and teachers have pledged to reduce their use of plastic.