A primary school in Bucks has become the first in the county to win a gold award for cutting back on single use plastics.

Haddenham Community Infant School in Aylesbury received a gold award as part of a new Buckinghamshire Recycles scheme launched last September.

The new initiative encourages primary schools to reduce or cut out single use plastics in their classrooms. 

It was rolled out by Buckinghamshire Recycles, a subset of Buckinghamshire Council, to promote a wider understanding of plastic pollution and its impact on the environment.

Primary schools signed up to the scheme can pledge to achieve 4 eco-friendly actions to receive a bronze award, 8 actions for a silver or 12 for a gold.

22 schools across Bucks are currently enrolled on the scheme, with Haddenham Community Infant School the first to claim a top prize.

The actions the primary school took to win the gold award included using recycled plates and cutlery, encouraging pupils to create posters for recycling bins and providing families with ideas for waste free packed lunches.

Gareth Williams, the council's cabinet member for climate change and environment, visited the school to congratulate them on their achievement and present pupils with a certificate alongside gardening equipment and a bag of Buckinghamshire Community Compost for their gardening club.

He described the gold award as "a massive achievement and testament to the commitment and hard work of everyone involved".

Adding: "Single use plastics are a very real problem, but this scheme shows how just a few simple changes can make a big difference.

"I would encourage other schools to think about signing up and starting their own journey towards waste reduction."

Bucks Free Press:

Carly Busby, school administrator at Haddenham and leader of the sustainable project, said pupils and staff were "extremely proud" to have won the first gold award of the initiative.

"We feel it is extremely important that schools do their utmost to try and reduce their carbon footprint as much as they possibly can.

"We also feel that it is imperative that the children to learn to make correct choices to help with raising awareness and addressing climate change.

"We hope that this will encourage more schools to make positive changes to help save the environment, especially as these changes do not need to be huge or cost too much money." 

The Reduce Single Use Plastic initiative is set to be expanded to include secondary schools in September.

Readers can visit www.recycleforbuckinghamshire.co.uk/plastic-free-schools for more information about the eco-friendly scheme.