Secondary schools have made plastic-reducing changes but sell thousands of single-use plastic water bottles a week, we can reveal.

Queen Elizabeth II High School sells about 700 bottles per week, which is said to generate about £8,000 in income, while Castle Rushen High School sells more than 1,000 per week.

Ramsey Grammar School’s school council handed a petition to Chief Minister Howard Quayle on Friday calling for compensation so that it can afford to stop selling single-use plastic bottled water in its canteen.

The sale of about 2,000 bottles every two weeks at the school generates about £20,000 a year, as the Isle of Man Examiner revealed in a page one story last week.

Students have urged for drinking fountains to be installed instead.

This call to action has been echoed by pupils at other secondary schools.

Kelly Darlow, school business manager at QEII High School, said: ’We have recently installed one water fountain.

’Our student council requested that water fountains be considered for the school and this was supported by our staff and student eco committee and senior team.

’Our water fountain has been purchased and installed with the kind support of our school association.’

The Peel high school has a plastics recycling scheme and fully supports the government’s single-use plastic reduction strategy, she added.

A group of QEII students performed a dance on Peel beach last year to highlight the dangers of plastics in the sea.

Their piece ’Dancing against the tide of Plastic’ was later performed in March at The Barbican in London as part of the Jane Goodall awards.

She confirmed that 700 single-use plastic bottles of water are sold per week at the school for 60p each, which generates about £8,000 in income per year.

Ballakermeen High School headteacher Adrienne Burnett declined to give figures on the amount of plastic bottled water sold in the school canteen as well as the income this generates because it’s ’commercially sensitive’ information, even though other schools gave their figures.

She told the Examiner that the Douglas school has ’substantially reduced’ its use of plastics and was ’working hard to make further reductions’.

’We use bamboo-based cutlery and plates for take-away food from the canteen, and since Easter 2017 we no longer provide any plastic bottles as part of our ’meal deal’ in the canteen,’ she said.

recycled

’We are also in the process of introducing re-usable sports bottles, manufactured using recycled plastic, bearing the Ballakermeen logo for students and staff to purchase, and there has been a noticeable increase in the use of multi-use bottles.’

Recycling bins in the shape of bottles are said to be found around the school to encourage students to recycle their plastic bottles and there is a total of eight drinking fountains across Ballakermeen with one having been recently fitted in the staff room.

’As we increase the number of fountains and multi-use bottles we expect use of water in plastic bottles to further decline,’ she said.

’With regards to the number of bottles of water sold and the profit it generates, we feel the information is commercially sensitive.’

The headteacher of Castle Rushen High School in Castletown, Keith Winstanley, said there had been an ’increasing student voice interest in improving our use of single-use plastics’.

’We sell approximately 1,600 to 1,800 bottles of water, flavoured water and cardboard cartons of fruit juice each week - they are all coded the same on our tills. Costs range from 60p to 75p,’ he said.

’We can’t split the single-use plastic drinks from those in cartons.’

He said that plastic cutlery, which was used when the students took their food out of the canteen, had now been replaced with wooden alternatives and polystyrene plates were no longer used.

Porcelain mugs will also replace plastic hot drinks cups for visitors, meetings, parents’ evenings and more.

’Single-use plastic cups will no longer be available after May 24,’ he said. ’Reusable plastic cups will be purchased for use at school events.

’A recycling box for bottle tops is available in the hall. This is being run by the kitchen staff, who collect them, take them home, package them up and post them to LUSH in their own time. We are trying alternative ways of presenting foods such as salads without plastic boxes.

’Students in year 7 [aged 11 to 12] will be given reusable bottles and the new incoming year 7 will also be given reusable water bottles in the autumn term.’

The school has seven drinking fountains, he said.

The Examiner did not receive a reply from St Ninian’s High School, Douglas, before our deadline.