Bit annoyed with school's lack of green thinking. AIBU?

[Butchmanda]

DS is in Year 6, brother left 2 years ago, so been associated with this school for quite some time. They have some really nice school trips. However, it's ALWAYS their policy to insist the kids bring food in disposable containers in plastic carrier bags. When lunch is done, everything is thrown away. (I've been on trips as a helper, and teachers provide a couple of bin liners and scoop up everything). Even food/drink not finished is chucked away, so no chance to save - for example - a piece of fruit or half bottle of water for the journey home.

I've always felt a very uneasy about this. I go to great lengths to reduce / reuse / recycle at home and so it makes me cringe to think of all this stuff going straight to landfill. (Maybe, depending on trip destination, there is chance to recycle the plastic bottles, but I somehow doubt it). If every child goes on a trip each half term, that's 6 trips a year x 7 years = 42 carrier bags etc to landfill in the course of primary school, per child. The school has 420 children. That's the school choosing to chuck 2,520 carrier bags a year.

Personally I think it's very crap! Especially when there is SO much in the news these days about the horrific effects plastic have on the environment and, particularly, on sealife.

Earlier this week my son had a trip. He decided he'd take a little backpack instead of a plastic bag, so that he wouldn't have to chuck stuff away. He's perfectly capable of being responsible for his belongings so I agreed. Apparently he was torn off a strip by his teacher for 'not doing as you were told' and made to put his lunch in a carrier bag which she provided (which he then had to bring home anyway, as his sandwich was in a Tupperware container).

I try to pick my battles and he's out of there soon, but I'm just annoyed - not for my son - but for their disregard for environmental issues. I really think it's about time they updated some of their habits.

I get that it might be a lot easier to just chuck stuff away instead of carrying it around all day, and there's less to leave behind on the train etc, but they always go on about being grown up and responsible, so these older kids can surely carry a small back pack. Before long they'll all be on buses and trains every morning commuting to secondary school.

Do other schools do this?

They shouldn't be eating on the journey.

that was half the fun of the trip! Getting sweets and treats to take with me that I wouldn't usually get and then swap with each other!

Our school had to change this policy after the venue (a stately home) refused to let them leave their rubbish behind.

My DC's school asks them to bring their backpacks and an optional bottle of water on trips, they provide a packed lunch and a bottle of water.

It's because parents go nuts.

At the playscheme on trips we never had a policy - people could bring what they like. Then a kid left a bag behind (after insisting to us they'd brought a plastic bag and binned it) and the parent went mental at us because they were only 8 and we should know. We have 60 kids on that trip. It's impossible to police.

It caused so much palaver (it wasn't the only time) that we now have really strict rules. After a combo of that and ridiculous things being brought we now decorate drawstring bags as an art activity during the week and one of the volunteers takes all the bags to the bus stop/train station or wherever and when we take the child from the parent we watch them put their lunch in their bag and send anything they are not allowed/don't need back with the parent (12 pack of mini haribos to be shared with selected people for example). We know every child should have a bag and we know what they look like so it's easier to police.

Prior to having enough funding to do that we did plastic bags.

@Idontdowindows Swapping food is heavily frowned upon in primary schools these days because of allergies and intolerances,

Swapping food is heavily frowned upon in primary schools these days because of allergies and intolerances,

Aw. :( They're missing out :D

School trip preparation and paperwork is stressful enough. I would let them get on with it.

The people looking after your child just want to get them home safely afterwards. Let this one go.

Aw. sad They're missing out :D

They are, but it has to be like that now.

If little Mary swapped something with William and William had a reaction then William's parents would lay the blame solely at the feet of the adults on the trip.

Not eating on the journey is usually the policy of the coach rather than the school. Every time we get on a coach the first thing the driver says is to insist on no eating on the coach and definitely no chewing gum.

Our school provides packed lunches for school trips using paper bags. The kids rarely eat the fruit and the waste drives me insane but I can't see a way around it - parents would go mad if we didn't provide it and nobody wants a bruised apple that has been carried around all day so there's no point bringing it home.

Drives me potty. Think about being a green school, Mummy, don't forget to (insert something ridiculous...) oh and i can't take my lumch box on the trip tomorrow, I need a disposable bag. I do send paper but between that and the bloody cake sales.....

I kid you not but one weekly newsletter went out with 'We gave an assembly on healthy eating and encouraged the children to think about food waste.... the children were given hot dogs after the sports activity and we had loads of cakes left over after the sale.'

It's more because someone loses their lunch box and then complains to school because a teacher/TA should have realised that Amelia had a pink fruit tub inside her paw patrol lunch box and she also had an ice pack in there too. Then school say 'actuallu amelia is 10 so we do tell the childreb to make sure they pick everything up off the floor after lunch and we do a scout of the ground/lunch room. We weren't to know she would put it down in thr toilets 50 mins later & we were busy minding the whole group to check cubicles after each trip'.

I can see exactly why school were short with you. They outlined the logistics and requirements for the trip and you decided that you would do your own thing because you felt like it.

My DCs school as part of the trip provide a pack lunch this comes in a brown paper bag. I would buy the brown bags and use those for future trips.

I've helped on countless school trips and can't stand the plastic bag policy. An hour into the trip someone's bag will have broken and I'll have to carry their lunch. Then as the day goes on it'll get warmer and kids want to take coats/jumpers off but they have nowhere to put them. I think every kid on every trip should have a proper backpack (and not a flimsy PE bag that keeps slipping down as they walk). Would be so much easier for everyone, and greener.

I bought some paper lunch bags and use those for DC's trips.

Is it really that "ungreen" if you use things that were going in the bin anyway? A breadbag for the sandwiches, hummus tub for the grapes etc. Most venues will have recycling bins so it won't be any different going in your recycling to theirs.

This sounds like a crazy policy, YANBU.

Our school asks every child to bring lunch in a backpack, right from Reception age, with a refillable water bottle. It’s so much easer for children to carry a backpack rather than a carrier bag! Also it gives them somewhere to put jumpers/gloves/hats etc.
Children take rubbish home with them or leave in the bins at the venue.
Occasionally there’s a leaky water bottle but that usually is when parents have packed a disposable plastic bottle rather than a proper one. On a hot day they can refill their water.
As for losing stuff, I have been a parent helper on many trips (ours do about 4 trips a year) and none of the children in my charge have lost anything - it’s not hard to do head counts and check each child has their coat and bag. If it’s a coach one of the staff will do a sweep at the end to check nothing is left, same with lunch room.
Most ventures like museums provide a specific space for kids to leave their coats and bags while they do an activity.

I don’t buy all these excuses of children not being able to manage their own bags therefore needing carrier bags. What will they do at secondary school for heaven’s sake?

Organising a trip takes SO many hours. Staff are not paid extra for them at all.
Many teachers can’t face organising trips given the volume of paperwork and hassle, on top of their jobs.

Walk a mile in their shoes before complaining about this.

At secondary they are told to bring a packed lunch. They can bring it how they like and dispose of it how they want. We don’t spend any time counting in or out bags.

Also doesn’t the lunch get all squished in a carrier bag? The fruit must get all bruised 🙁

Tipentoes I don't buy bread in bags and I don't buy plastic pots... so no, any disposable waste packaging in my house has to be a bought paper bag.... I really am not some eco warrier but I have for a long time before this latest crusade, avoided plastic!!

You don't buy anything, ever, that comes in a plastic or paper bag that you could use for a packed lunch once a year or so?

What does your bread cone in?? All loaves in our supermarket come in plastic, the nice bakery ones come in a paper bag- both could be used as a disposable lunch bag!

It's ludicrous OP.

Waste is not a new issue. My oldest child is in Year 9. The primary school had started working on no lunch waste before he started in Reception. School trips were always 'take a small backpack with lunch and a resealable drink'. Everyone had reusable containers.

There is no reason why a school should be insisting on creating extra waste for every single school trip. I'm sure there's the odd one (such as lunch on the first day of a week long residential) but for a day trip it's completely irresponsible and unnecessary.

I work in an attraction that takes school trips and although we do see this sometimes, we don't see it often. Normally, kids come in carrying a backpack, and have their own lunch boxes. This is with kids as young as nursery. At the end, the children all line up to move on and you look where they were sitting and collect any left behind. You don't normally get lunch boxes left, sometimes a drinks bottle. But as soon as you hold it up they all know who it belongs to. Same with coats and jumpers. Doesn't take long and doesn't fill the place up with plastic. I'm with you Op.
Sometimes, it might be easier to do this, depending on the trip. But every time? Nope. Terrible message to be sending and really not good environmental practice.

Why can’t they just put their rubbish and plastic lunch boxes etc back in their own rucksack? Why does it have to be thrown away?