with Cllr Ken James and headteacher Andrea Woods
Caerphilly County Borough has been rated within the top three local authority areas in Wales for its number of “Eco Schools”.
The scheme, run by Keep Wales Tidy, aims to get pupils thinking about the environment by letting them set up green projects within their schools.
So far, every school in the county borough has an Eco School award, with 71 having a Green Flag award.
Green Flags are renewed every two years and schools renewing for a fourth time are also granted an Eco School’s Platinum award.
Fifteen schools currently hold their first flag, 14 schools have achieved their second, 19 have their third while 22 schools have achieved their fourth.
Ysgol Gymraeg Penalltau, in Ystrad Mynach, was recently awarded its first Green Flag after pupils introduced recycling bins in every class, food waste recycling, battery recycling and asked for the installation of push-taps throughout the school.
Abertysswg Primary School has also been awarded its first Green Flag for its pupils’ environmental initiative.
Cllr Ken James, Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Planning and Sustainable Development said: “Congratulations to the schools within Caerphilly who have achieved either an Eco School award or an Eco School Green Flag award.
“I am delighted that pupils within the borough are being taught the importance of the environment and sustainability, as this knowledge will stand them in great stead for the future.”
More children enter the Green Delusion.
That really is good news then?
Not exactly. Green measures are often not that green. It takes more energy to recycle plastics than it does to use oil to make new plastics. It takes more energy to recycle paper than to create new paper by cutting down, and then replanting, trees. It takes more energy to recycle some small metal cans than it does to create new ones. Most of this energy is from coal-fired power stations, or gas.
The pointless nature of recycling can be seen by how recycled materials is transported, at great cost, half way across the world to sit in a big pile in some poor country as locals scour it looking for things to sell, or survive on. That is the reality of recycling. The idea of taking everything and making new things at a lower cost whilst saving resources is a myth. Hence the Green Delusion.
Secondly, think of all of the paper wasted in making green posters for schools promoting environmentalism, think of the artificial inks used in making that sign, think of the plants that were cut down to make the flag material, and think of the petrol used in the cars transporting the councillors and the photographer just to take the photo.
Environmentalism at a school level is a huge con.
Yes this is nothing more than brainwashing kids, and how are these kids getting to school – their parents are driving them a few hundred yards in fossil fuel burning cars to drop them off at the school gate, I’d like to see a school have the gumption to ban parents bringing their cars near a school, not that they could actually do such a thing but surely this would be the biggest Eco friendly action a school could take that would really make a difference to the kids, the local community and the air quality around the school.
So this is bad news then?