Monday, August 30, 2010
ONE of the most heartening things to happen in Ireland in recent times has been the heightened awareness of the environment among children who are now leading the way and, indeed, educating their parents on such matters.
Up to 80% of our schools are taking part in the highly successful Green Flag programme and, with schools reopening this week, students at all levels will again be reminded of green issues and the appreciation of the natural world around them.
Those of us who have long since departed the classroom have memories of schoolyard litter, especially during the lunch break when paper wrappings were thrown on the ground and crows and other birds swooped in to feast on bread crusts and other food that had been thrown away.
However, welcome progress has been made in schools in relation to littering and children are now very conscious of this and other issues.
After the long summer break, it’s back to preparing lunches again and new paper lunch bags have come on the market. Not alone can such the bags help eliminate schoolyard waste, they can also keep food fresh and be reused and recycled.
The 500,000 primary school children in Ireland each take more than 2,000,000 packed lunches weekly and mother-of-four Shauna Walsh thought there must be a more environmentally friendly and easier way to pack their sandwiches.
Her children are aged from four to 14 and she disliked sending them off to school with their lunches wrapped in plastic, foil or cling-film. Her youngest two found the cling-film hard to open and harder to reuse, with the other two becoming more and more conscious of their surrounding environment.
Walsh worked on her idea for paper lunch bags which are made with greaseproof paper and can be reused, recycled and, she pledges, keep the lunch at its freshest.
"With nothing available in the market and schools pushing children to become more ecologically aware through the Green Flag Scheme I decided to develop my own," she says. "Luckily, we already have a packing business and it was through this that I created the easy-to-use, environmentally-friendly alternative."
"Once my kid’s friends and mums saw them they wanted their own. It was because of this interest and enthusiasm that we decided to bring them to market."
Walsh reported a positive response from parents and teachers. The lunch bags, made by Walsh Packaging in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, come in packs of 50 and are available in supermarkets throughout the country at a recommended retail price of €2.49.
It seems that educating children on their responsibilities as citizens of the planet cannot begin early enough. During the summer many will have experienced the great outdoors and are returning to school with fresh insights and understanding.
Around the country, the number of sites and attractions aimed at teaching children about the environment is on the increase. The Irish Peatland Conservation Council (IPCC) has teaching packages on boglands and has for many years been encouraging school groups to visit bogs.
Our national parks and Coillte woodlands are also great places in which to learn about nature, while the 240-acre estate Kippure Estate, in the Wicklow Mountains, is dedicated to educating children, young and old, about the physical environment.
Field studies for students about to sit their Leaving Certificate examinations in geography and biology are carried out in the estate. These studies are also enjoyed by children of younger ages as an introduction to these subjects.
A Bringing Nature to Life module, in Kippure, is based on Joseph Cornell’s nature awareness approach and gives children the chance to make a personal connection to the natural world through playful investigation.
There is also a high level of participation in the National Heritage Week Poster Competition which this year had an Irish oak theme and was won by Diarmuid Brennan, of De La Salle College, Waterford. The poster has been developed by a professional design agency and is featuring in the National Heritage Week advertising campaign.
Diarmuid explained: "The Irish oak is symbolic of Irish heritage and is an iconic symbol of life. The roots represent where you’ve come from which is why different aspects of Irish heritage are entwined within them."
Isabell Smyth, of the Heritage Council, described the poster as a fitting image for heritage week as it illustrates our complex heritage and shows the past as a resource to be drawn on for the future.
Meanwhile, Irish children continue to make our Green Schools programme one of the most successful within the international network and 1,759 Irish schools have been awarded the Green Flag.
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