We had a visit from Pat an educational officer from Northern Ireland Water today. He took an assembly of primary 4 to primary 5 pupils and spoke passionately about the processes our drinking water goes through before it reaches our homes.
Pat invited us to ‘Join the Refillution,’ - the Waterboard’s campaign encouraging everyone to refill a reusable water bottle with tap water and buy fewer, single use plastic bottles. To help us with the campaign, he provided the whole school with new refillable bottles for us to bring to school. We just need to fill them up at home each morning and then wash out at night and have ready for the next school day!
We heard some interesting facts about plastic- especially plastic single use bottles and heard all about how children in disadvantaged countries get their water. We’ll be keen to help others in our Trocaire collections during Lent.
Figures from a Marine Litter report (2018), conducted by Keep Northern Ireland Beautiful have revealed that 78% of litter collected on Northern Ireland’s beaches was plastic. Plastic is one of the few materials which never degrades completely in the natural environment; instead it breaks down into smaller pieces over a very long period of time.
Angela Halpenny, Northern Ireland Water Head of Environmental Regulation says, “The water industry has a strong focus on the environment and we are committed to tackling the problems caused by plastic bottles which block up our rivers and drains, and pollute our seas. By switching to a reusable bottle, people can help turn the tide in helping to reduce plastic waste. Our drinking water is world class and we want everyone to benefit from it.”
Northern Ireland uses 145 million single use plastic bottles every year. Across the UK, 7.7 billion plastic water bottles are used each year, with the average person now using 150 plastic water bottles every year – that’s more than 3 a week. Many are discarded, and end up polluting our rivers and seas. Staggeringly if just 1 in 10 refilled just once a week, we would save around 340 million plastic bottles a year.
With our drinking water world class, staying hydrated and reducing plastic waste is a win-win for everyone.
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