PUPILS have stopped a major milk company using straws.

Year 1 and 2 pupils at Firle Church of England Primary School wrote letters to Britain’s leading school milk supplier, Cool Milk, asking them to stop including straws in their deliveries to the school.

Cressida Bailey, aged six, wrote to the company and said: “The fish in the sea don’t deserve this.

“Have you heard the story of the turtle in the ocean, then it got a straw in its nose?

“Imagine if that was you.”

Amber Luscombe, aged six, also wrote a letter to Cool Milk.

She said: “Please send our milk in a big carton so that we can use cups.”

Message

Ida Dennis Masters, aged five, also had a message for the brand.

She added: “Just don’t do it.”

The letters campaign was successful, and Cool Milk sent a response to the school.

They promised pupils that they would stop using the single use straws in their deliveries to the school immediately.

They now give the school their milk delivery in a large container, so the children can drink from cups.

Chris Hogg, deputy managing director at Cool Milk said: “We’re delighted to be able to support Firle Primary School’s campaign.

“We know that all schools have their own ways of doing things and their own values and priorities, so what works for one school may not work for another – but we are very happy to discuss any school’s individual requirements on a case-by-case basis.

Campaign

Firle C of E Primary is calling on other schools to join their campaign.

Teacher Emma Ricca said: “We want to launch a No Straw January, reducing the use of straws in our school packed lunches too.

“What better New Year’s Resolution, to work together with Cool Milk and local children, so that all Sussex schools make a significant difference to plastic waste?”

Cool Milk work in partnership with local authorities and early years group to supply free and subsidised milk to children in pre-schools, nurseries and primary schools across the UK.

Impact

Vicki Brown, head of Firle Church of England Primary School, also commented on the campaign.

She said that everybody could make an impact, no mater how big or small their school or organisation was.

Miss Brown said: “We are a small village primary, but our children are passionate and effective.

“This enormous company immediately took their concerns on board.

“Even the littlest voices can be heard if they shout loud enough.”

The school wanted Cool Milk to stop using plastic straws because of the negative effects they have on the environment.

More than eight million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean every year.

A 2016 plastics economy report by the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicted that, by 2050, there would be more plastics in the ocean than fish, by weight.

Common

Straws are one of the most common items to be found in the sea.

They came in the top ten items to be picked up in beach clean-ups.

These straws are often made from single-use plastic, a material which has a very short lifespan nut never biodegrades.

So, they end up being discarded in landfill.

A spokesman for campaign group For a Strawless Ocean said: “Most plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling sorter.

“They drop through sorting screens and mix with other materials and are too small to separate, contaminating recycling loads or getting disposed as garbage.”

There have also been many incidences where plastic straws have had harmful effects on ocean wildlife.

In 2015, a team of scientists discovered an endangered species of sea turtle with what they thought was a parasitic worm in its nose, blocking its airway and leaving it struggling to breathe.

Plastic

But, after looking closer, they found that it was a plastic straw, as mentioned by Firle Church of England Primary School pupil Cressida in her letter to Cool Milk. It took them several hours to safely remove the straw and return the sea turtle to the ocean, and a video of the procedure was viewed thousands of times on the internet.

Many businesses and even some cities are now pushing for a ban on plastic straws.

Firle Church of England Primary School is one of these organisations.

Their campaign is one of many currently fighting to lessen the amount of plastic waste created and discarded each year.

It was done as part of the school’s This is Me project.

This is designed to promote the school’s ethos of achieve, believe and celebrate among its pupils.