Recycling Plastic Bottles- idea for summer holidays!

Well the summer holidays are almost here and no doubt many parents will be wondering how on earth they're going to keep their little darlings occupied for a whole 8 weeks? It's a fair question!

With the Irish weather as unpredictable as it is, you can be guaranteed there'll be a few rainy days where everyone will be stuck inside and the kids will be bored....so with that in mind, I thought it might be worth posting a simple idea that perhaps some of the kids would be interested in....

Have a look at the following link: http://www.sealrescueireland.org/blog/ecobricks

Seal Rescue Ireland have an initiative to encourage recycling of plastic bottles by converting them into "eco- bricks". These bricks can then be re-used and turned into furniture or even to build walls. The idea is to raise awareness of unnecessary plastic waste and to hopefully reduce the amount of plastic waste we produce.  Lots of sea animals, including seals,are getting entangled in plastic waste or ingesting plastic waste which can be fatal. This idea might be a way to re-use and -up-cycle some of the plastic bottles that end up in your recycling bin or rubbish. However, bear in mind that Seal Rescue Ireland have to assess the weight/quality of the ecobrick before accepting it so they will NOT accept bricks sent to them via post!

Ditching Plastic!

Did you know that one million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute?

According to Sandra Laville and Matthew Taylor of the Guardian, 

"More than 480bn plastic drinking bottles were sold in 2016 across the world, up from about 300bn a decade ago. If placed end to end, they would extend more than halfway to the sun. By 2021 this will increase to 583.3bn, according to the most up-to-date estimates from Euromonitor International’s global packaging trends report."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change

You might say to yourself, "So what?" "How does that affect me?" Well, much of what we throw away in the form of plastic does not actually get recycled and ends up in landfill or in our lakes, rivers, seas and oceans.  The danger here is that as plastic breaks down over time into micro-plastics, it is ingested by sea animals and birds and is now ending up in our food chain (in fish and shellfish)! We have seen the impact they have caused on large sea mammals such as seals and whales but the impact on human health in the long term can only be imagined!

As part of a drive to reduce our dependence on and over -consumption of plastic bottles and plastic packaging, we are asking you as parents to consider approaching your local supermarkets to urge them to go plastic-free and to avoid buying bottled water for your household. You can invest in a reusable bottle instead. 
For more ideas on little things we can all do to end plastic pollution and calculate your own plastic usage, have a look at the following link:https://www.earthday.org/2018/06/08/what-you-can-do-to-end-plastic-pollution/