LETTER: Council must support green schools

Their letter was well researched and full of useful, very disturbing facts that we all need to take to heart every day. It’s great and humbling that primary children — aged five to 11 — are leading the older generation on this and we so-called “wiser” oldies need to sit up and take notice of them.

Well done to Wath Victoria Primary school and all the other schools in Rotherham who are educating our children on this issue and teaching them the skills and importance of getting well-researched facts and presenting evidence-based arguments. This is so important in these days of fake news.

That said, I was most disappointed and deeply concerned to learn that their hard work and efforts are not supported by RMBC’s policy on plastic waste collection for Rotherham schools. Can you believe that in this day and age and with a climate “crisis”, they don’t provide a separate plastic recycling bin to schools in Rotherham? What a missed opportunity! As a result, schools’ plastic waste is mixed up with their general waste! Much of this will be contaminated by the general waste and irretrievable by the time it gets to the recycling plants, so it will go into landfill contaminating the ground and harming the wildlife scavenging there, or be incinerated releasing toxic fumes.

So come on RMBC, the Waste Committee and all the councillors — thank Rotherham children and schools for bringing this to our attention and follow their lead by giving all Rotherham schools a separate plastic waste bin with immediate effect.

This is a quick, easy win for all of you and demonstrates you’ve got a fully comprehensive, well thought through, cohesive strategy on your Green policy and Green credentials.

Chris Peters