A school has promised its recent use of single-use plastic cutlery ’won’t happen again’.

Castle Rushen High School said that an ’unusal and acute shortage’ of kitchen staff had driven it to distribute the single-use plastic utensils to students.

This was discovered after the Examiner contacted the Department of Education, Sport and Culture to find out why the school had been using disposable plastics while island-wide efforts have been made to reduce them.

A department spokesman forwarded the school’s statement saying its use of disposables ’was not a desirable solution or a decision that was taken easily’ and it has ’made every effort to ensure it won’t happen again’.

The issue comes before the Isle of Man Government Single Use Plastic Plan in all of the island’s schools and buildings is put into effect.

The DESC is currently at the start of implementing the plan, which states: ’Through their partnership with UNESCO Biosphere Isle of Man, many schools have plastic awareness and reduction programmes in place.

’All school buildings and school kitchens recycle as much as they can and are about to complete a single use plastic audit, in conjunction with all government departments, which will help give a good indicator of where they currently sit with single use plastics use,’ the spokesman said.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture will study the audits to find any common challenges that will be discussed by the government’s sustainability champions, which have been appointed in every department. ’The audits will be incredibly useful so schools can receive specific help and guidance in replacing current single use plastics with sustainable alternatives,’ they said.

Once completed, from January 2019, all schools - which are UNESCO Biosphere partners - will ban single use plastic cutlery, plates, stirrers, straws and cups once supplies are used and sustainable alternatives have been sourced.

The DESC spokesman added: ’Schools are at the start of a very exciting change, all of which are fully engaged.’

Laxey School is one school that has made a number of steps to combat the plastic issue. Students organised a community beach clean with Beach Buddies this month. The school confirmed it does not use single-use plastic plates or cutlery and has put a stop on using single-use plastic cups this year.

Bronwyn Ward, who teaches year six (ages 10 to 11), said: ’We’ve looked into the dining room because of our focus. The only single use plastic being used, but not regularly, is the yoghurt containers.

’We’ve been getting the children to plan what we need to do to be more environmentally friendly - recycling is one idea they have so we will be developing this over 2019.’

The students have raised concerns about single-use plastics during meetings.

She added: ’When we do litter picks we have to provide gloves - often single-use plastic ones - so the children have requested donations of washing up gloves to stop this clash of values.’

Pupils are developing stickers to go on Laxey stores to indicate which ones are happy to refill reusable bottles. Eight cafes and shops as well as Garff Commissioners have shown their support.

’The children really are keen to make a difference - they are identifying issues and thinking of ways to fix them,’ she said.