Pick Up Three Pieces: The Hope Community School and Burray School at the 4th Barrier.

What a lot of plastic!

After a day finding out about marine litter and thinking about the effects it has on the environment, it was time for pre-school to P7 children from The Hope School, and Burray School, to tackle the problem at the 4th Barrier.

setting off

Careful not to disturb the terns, the groups set off and scoured sections of the beach.

As well as the usual plastic bottles and pieces of sheet there was a surprising amount of tyres and old creels and fencing wire.

P5,6 and 7

P3 and P4

P1 and P2

While the older children conducted a survey of the litter they found, others had a Scavenger hunt and identified lots of natural things that we like to find on the beach, with RSPB Ranger Katy Norbury.

Ghost net.

Undaunted at the challenging task of removing a ghost net from the dunes the P3 and P4s spent a lot of energy trying to excavate it, but finally had to give up. Can anyone out there with a tractor help us?

If you can please send us a photo!

The Eco Committee gathered at the bin for the application of the new sticker.

Pick Up THREE!!!

And everyone rolled, dragged and carried the rubbish back to the bin.

A fantastic amount was gathered up and the final pile of bruck was more than the bin could hold. What a difference was made to the beach - well done everyone and thank you for all your hard work!

Special thanks to Ms Towsey for organising funding and planning the big event.

Its great to have a bin for bruck at the 4th barrier - let's Pick Up Three Pieces each time we visit!

About PU3P

Pick Up Three Pieces was started and continues to be lead by Orkney school children who want to take responsibility for removing some of the litter that is building up on their local beaches. They are finding out it that it is a global problem seriously affecting animals. It entangles them or is mistaken for food by them. Plastic bags look like jellyfish to a turtle and marine mammals and birds are often entangled in floating debris.

We hope this blog will inspire all of our schools and our whole community to take an active part in this initiative. Guest posts from schools, community groups, recreational groups and clubs, and individuals with an interest in the marine environment, are welcome.

3 comments:

Anonymous21 June 2013 at 15:18
Thanks to all the children for their hard work and for setting a good example for the rest of us.
Anonymous22 June 2013 at 16:02
All the children did a fantastic job clearing so much rubbish. It may be marine litter but as you can see from the pics it very land based. Tyres, huge swathes of silage wrap, bits of hard plastic and net etc. Not just items that might be dropped accidentally.
Anonymous24 June 2013 at 07:29
We had a great time cleaning the beach. There was an astonishing amount of litter which wasn't good and had obviously been dropped on purpose. We found loads of tyres and creels. All the adults were enthusiastic! We hope the beach stays clean from now on. PICK UP THREE PIECES........or else!

Burray School P2 - 7