A school in Melbourne is removing bins from the classrooms and telling children to take their rubbish home to encourage them to move towards zero waste.

Melbourne Girls’ College (MGC) hopes families will be persuaded to think more sustainably when packing their child’s school lunch and will buy items with less packaging as a result of the decision.

Headteacher Karen Money, who is introducing the changes next week, said the plan has come from a group of students who are part of the school’s sustainability team.

Students will conduct daily non-compulsory food inspections in which pupils who use reusable packaging will receive a token that will go into a draw to win prizes.

“It is a big issue across the world and really it has come from student agency,” Ms Money told ABC Radio Melbourne.

Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A father and son on a makeshift boat made from styrofoam paddle through a garbage filled river as they collect plastic bottles that they can sell in junkshops in Manila. The father and son team earn some three US dollars a day retrieving recyclables from the river. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A composite image of items found on the shore of the Thames Estuary in Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines areas along the Thames Estuary shoreline, an important feeding ground for wading birds and other marine wildlife. Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic water bottles among the garbage washed ashore at the Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, at current rates of pollution, there will likely be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastics and other detritus line the shore of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017 Britain joined the other 193 UN countries and signed up to a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic find their way into the world's oceans every year. Once in the Ocean plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade, all the while breaking down into smaller and smaller 'microplastics,' which can be consumed by marine animals, and find their way into the human food chain. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A dump site in Manila in 2013. The Philippines financial capital banned disposable plastic shopping bags and styrofoam food containers, as part of escalating efforts across the nation's capital to curb rubbish that exacerbates deadly flooding. AFP/Getty Images Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children swims in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures An Indian woman holds a jar filled with Yamuna river water polluted with froth and toxic foam to be used for rituals at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other holy rivers in India, has been massively polluted for decades now. The river that originates in a glacier in the pristine and unpolluted Himalayas, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges River in Allahabad, once used to be the lifeline of the Indian capital. Currently, it is no more than a large, open sewer that is choking with industrial and domestic discharge that includes plastic, flowers and debris and has virtually no aquatic life. EPA Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Plastic waste is washed up on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports by scientists have confirmed, plastics dumped in the world oceans are reaching a dangerous level with micro plastic particles now being found inside filter feeding animals and amongst sand grains on our beaches. Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Children collect plastic to be sold and recycled, in a polluted river in suburban Manila. The city's trash disposal agency traps solid waste floating down waterways that was thrown into the water by residents of slums along riverbanks upstream. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures View of the Carpayo Beach in La Punta, Callao, some 15 km of Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA labeled the Carpayo Beach as the most polluted in the country - 40 tons of trash on each 500m2. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Trash from Kamilo Beach in Hawaii. Gabriella Levine/Flickr Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A scavenger collects plastic cups for recycling in a river covered with rubbish near Pluit dam in Jakarta. Reuters Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Rubbish fills Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage offshore from some of the Caribbean's pristine beaches are testimony to a vast and growing problem of plastic pollution heedlessly dumped in our oceans, locals, activists and experts say. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures A man climbs down to a garbage filled river in Manila. Plastic rubbish will outweigh fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic action to recycle the material, a report warned in 2016. AFP/Getty Plastic waste across the world: in pictures Garbage on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), in the south Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island has been found to have the world's highest density of waste plastic, with more than 3,500 additional pieces of litter washing ashore daily at just one of its beaches. EPA

“We are trying to build agile thinkers that are dealing with some of the larger issues in the world.

“Looking at some of the surveys about what young people are worried about, climate change and the environment that they are going into is a major issue.”

She added: “If we all did nothing then we are just going to be in an even worse crisis.”

Classroom bins will be removed and replaced with recycling stations and compost options, but sanitary waste bins will remain in the bathrooms.

In a newsletter to parents, Ms Money said: “The plan is being adopted with the ambition of becoming a zero waste to landfill school by the end of 2020, massively reducing our environmental impact.

“We hope that this will encourage everyone – students and staff alike – to reduce their waste by bringing less waste to school and, in doing so, create less waste at home.

“Numerous primary schools across the country have zero waste bins, however if successful, we believe we would be the first high school in Australia to make the change.”

The school spent nearly $13,000 (£7,200) to remove 1,000 cubic metres of rubbish last year, which was on top of paper recycling and other waste programmes, according to the Herald Sun.

Ms Money added: “Not everyone is convinced yet but we at least need to give it ago.

“It is about education and communication. It is about making sure that we are all doing out bit.”

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The action comes as tens of thousands of children and young people have taken part in nationwide protests urging the government to introduce measures to address climate change.

Students from across the UK have missed school as part of the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement.

Last year, Brighton College, a private school in East Sussex, announced plans to ban pupils and teachers from taking plastic water bottles, plastic straws or non-biodegradable cups onto the premises.

Richard Cairns, headmaster at Brighton College, said that pupils caught flouting the ban of single-use plastics on the school site could face punishments – including supervised beach-cleaning.