Leading garden furniture company, LifestyleGarden is hoping to launch a company initiative to educate the next generation of eco-warriors about the impacts of marine plastic pollution. 

With the issues of sustainability and single use plastic galvanising a green revolution, young children are growing up with an understanding of how we can all make a difference to help our environment.

Inspired by activists such as Greta Thunberg and programmes such as Blue Planet II, youngsters feel it is important to reduce plastics being deposited in our oceans and move to a more sustainable future in order to improve the world they live in.

Last month, the company visited Hockley Primary School – local to its UK trade showroom in Basildon - where LifestyleGarden Merchandiser, Richard Baxter, gave a thought-provoking talk to the school’s ECO Team about how the company repurposes marine plastic waste into sustainable furniture.  

The hour-long talk also gave the pupils the chance to learn about and sit in LifestyleGarden’s ground-breaking DuraOcean chair, the first commercially available piece of furniture of its kind to be made from ocean plastic waste such as fishing nets, ropes and debris found on the seabeds.  The school children were then presented with goody bags and the school received their own DuraOcean chair, which now sits proudly in their Sycamore classroom.

The visit was so successful that LifestyleGarden is now looking into a series of impactful school talks that will teach the importance of sustainability, look at how much plastic is thrown away and the effect this has, and to possibly look at introducing a special ocean recovery school programme.

Richard Baxter, Merchandiser at LifestyleGarden said; “It was inspiring to hear from Hockley Primary School’s staff and the pupils from the ECO Team about the actions and activities the school undertakes to embrace and promote sustainability.  We were amazed that the Hockley pupils were so astute to the problem of plastic pollution and wanted to play their part to prevent it.  It iscomforting to see that children are leading the way, taking action, encouraging their friends and family to change and reduce their carbon footprint.  We are hoping this could be the start of a new plastic education programme which includes school talks, as well as beach clean-up clubs.  Children have a special connection to nature, wildlife and want to protect the environment around them. It is important to engage the next generation on environmental topics, as they are, after all, our future.”

Find out more 

If you want to find out more about LifestyleGarden and its premium-quality outdoor furniture, please visit http://www.lifestylegarden.com and follow the team on Facebook and Instagram.

Further details about ScanCom’s commitment to the environment and social accountability can be found at http://www.scancom.net