Drastic Plastic

Drastic Plastic is a project by the youth ambassadors for UN children’s rights and SDGs from Caritas International Aid Vorarlberg. The aim of the project is to ban PET bottles from schools and replace them with reusable glass bottles from regional suppliers. Workshops and the school-related “PET Parade” event not only draw attention to the plastic problem, but also to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are inextricably linked to this issue. Pupils and teachers are given an understanding of the importance of the SDGs and shown that each and every one of them can make a commitment to the SDGs. The project is implemented 100% by young people between the ages of 15 and 22 and shows how young people are committed to their sustainable future.

Our goal


At the first PET Parade in Vorarlberg, school classes were invited to build a “PET Man”. They were encouraged to collect plastic bottles in their class to build a human-like sculpture. This made it possible to illustrate how much plastic bottle waste is produced by a single class in a very short time, particularly in schools with plastic bottle vending machines.

On 14 June, around 500 pupils set up the “PET people” on the market square in Dornbirn for a “PET parade”.

This drew attention to the unnecessary production of plastic waste and called for a change. A signal was sent that it is time to switch to glass bottles from regional beverage suppliers. In addition to the “PET people”, a plastic art picture was also built from plastic waste brought along.

The highlight of the parade was the presentation of the signatures collected as part of the project by pupils and supporters of the abolition of plastic bottle vending machines at Vorarlberg schools to political representatives. This political statement was emphasised with over 150 PET bottle mail bottles to the Vorarlberg state government, thus attracting attention.

The PET parade was supported by the Association of Municipalities for Waste Management and Environmental Protection (environmental association) and promoted as part of Environment Week.

Sustainability goals in focus

The “Drastic Plastic” project focuses on several SDGs at once, as the plastic problem is a multi-layered challenge. Plastic is generally light, cheap, practical and durable. This plastic does not decompose, but breaks down into ever smaller particles, known as microplastics. These particles, called bisphenol (BPA), can now be found in the remotest parts of the world and are detectable in the bodies of humans (SDG 3 – Health and Wellbeing) and animals (SDG 14 – Life Below Water). If we do not finally offer alternatives, we will have produced an incredible 1,000 million tons of plastic worldwide by 2050. If Austria’s secondary schools alone were to switch to glass bottles and deposit machines, over 6 million PET bottles of waste could be avoided every year (SDG 11 – sustainable cities and communities, SDG 12 – sustainable consumption and production). For this reason, we Youth Ambassadors are campaigning for this important change in schools. To this end, we have designed various school materials and workshops for school classes (SDG 4 – Quality Education).

By publicizing the topic and raising awareness, we want to show that everyone can do something about plastic consumption.

PET parade

At the first PET Parade in Vorarlberg, school classes were invited to build a “PET Man”. They were encouraged to collect plastic bottles in their class to build a human-like sculpture. This made it possible to illustrate how much plastic bottle waste is produced by a single class in a very short time, particularly in schools with plastic bottle vending machines.

On 14 June, around 500 pupils set up the “PET people” on the market square in Dornbirn for a “PET parade”.

This drew attention to the unnecessary production of plastic waste and called for a change. A signal was sent that it is time to switch to glass bottles from regional beverage suppliers. In addition to the “PET people”, a plastic art picture was also built from plastic waste brought along.

The highlight of the parade was the presentation of the signatures collected as part of the project by pupils and supporters of the abolition of plastic bottle vending machines at Vorarlberg schools to political representatives. This political statement was emphasised with over 150 PET bottle mail bottles to the Vorarlberg state government, thus attracting attention.

The PET parade was supported by the Association of Municipalities for Waste Management and Environmental Protection (environmental association) and promoted as part of Environment Week.

Impressions

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