The Last Straw: No more plastic straws at WSE

In our continued efforts to consider the environmental impact of Wimbledon School of English and to reduce our carbon footprint, WSE are joining the nationwide campaign #laststraw

Let’s do our bit at WSE!

What’s #laststraw all about?
Several countries are embracing efforts to put a stop to unnecessary pollution of our seas and oceans.  As highlighted by programmes such as David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 (BBC), plastic waste in our seas and oceans is a huge problem, and single-use plastic straws are one of the biggest and unnecessary polluters of our planet.

Who is backing this campaign?
There are big campaigns in countries such as the USA and Australia, and several regions of the United Kingdom. Now the London Evening Standard has launched a campaign and petition specific to London. Big companies such as restaurants Pizza Express, Bill’s and Leon have all banned plastic straws already.

Why?
According to the LES campaign (see change.org/thelaststraw), “London is the plastic straw capital of Europe with two billion plastic straws used every year. Each straw takes minutes to use and around 500 years to degrade.”

Why are WSE getting involved?
We have a Corporate Social Responsibility policy which means we are constantly looking for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle, in order to reduce any negative impact on the environment. We encourage our students to get involved with our efforts e.g. by recycling waste, by reusing plastic cups (rather than single use), as well as switching off lights and electronics. See the most recent CSR report published on our website:  https://www.wimbledon-school.ac.uk/csr/index.php

What are WSE doing?
We have eliminated single-use plastic straws from our snack bar.

What else can I do? Where can I get more info?
See: https://www.standard.co.uk/topic/the-last-straw
Or see Charis (our CSR Officer) for more info.