TGGS Eco Group

What is the Eco Group?

The newly re-founded Eco Club is an organisation of students and staff helping to make our school greener and fight climate change.  Before the pandemic, the Eco Group did a number of things including the iconic ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ video in order to raise signatures for change in government, the Swish clothes swap to reduce fast fashion, and much more to challenge the problem of climate injustice.

What is our goal?

This year, the Eco Group is aiming to tackle the issue of single use plastics in our school – with the goal to eliminate them completely from our school lives.

-        Why are single use plastics harmful?

Single use plastics – or disposable plastics – are incredibly bad for our environment. Even if the plastic product is designed to be thrown away and recycled, 90% of plastic is NEVER recycled, despite what is says on its packaging and only 9% of plastic waste gets recycled. The rest is either burned or dumped, releasing greenhouse gases and pollutants into our atmosphere, in turn contributing to the greenhouse gas effect and global warming. The main problem with single use plastics is that they aren’t biodegradable, meaning that they just break down into tiny particles (micro particles) that contaminate our environment, and even get into our food and water (one 2018 study discovered plastic particles in 93% of bottled water samples. Another from the year before found 83% of tap water samples from around the world contained micro plastics).

In order to accomplish our goal of a plastic free school, we are working with the Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) programme, with the goal of being awarded a plastic free school status! In brief, the programme consists of completing four steps: raising awareness of the plastic problem and launching the plastic free campaign; stemming the flow of plastic; contacting the government and challenging the industry.

How can YOU get involved?

From January 2024, the eco club will be running on Monday lunchtimes in G2, open to everyone in Years 7-13. Within the club we will be running activities, contributing towards creating a more ecofriendly school and local community. We will also be holding many school and house competitions for prizes of house points and other things, for those who can’t make it to the meetings.

For those of you who want to go the extra mile – consider joining a local environmental group near you! 

Join a local volunteer group | Greenpeace UK

Get Involved Join (or start) a group near you | Local action (friendsoftheearth.uk)

Fund our fight for the ocean - Surfers Against Sewage (sas.org.uk)

Want more information?

Contact the eco club 18lmortimer@tggsacademy.org or follow the Eco Club Instagram @tggs_eco.club

More information and updates are to come!