Valletta Church School Refuses Free Fruit And Vegetables Because Of Unnecessary Plastic Use
Early last year, the government of Malta launched a scheme to distribute free fruit, vegetables, and milk to school children. However, the project received a large amount of backlash over the use of plastic straws in the milk, and excess plastic packaging for the fruit and veg.
Recently, St Albert the Great College – a primary school in Valletta – has confirmed that they opted out of the scheme as a result of the excess plastic being used.
They claim the main reason behind this choice was because of a “lack of consistency” between practice and preaching. The school prioritises the importance of taking care of the environment in any way possible, including decreasing waste, and this message would have been contradicted by handing out numerous plastic containers to the students everyday.
“In a country with such a huge waste problem, the project is being managed in a hugely contradictory way. We need to take our responsibility to the environment seriously, not. only when it is convenient to us.”
Speaking to MaltaToday, the school’s principal Mr Mario Mallia explained that he feels they cannot “display the flag for being an eco-friendly school while supporting the use of many plastic containers, irrespective of whether these are recyclable.”
He pointed out that it would be irresponsible to promote reuse nation-wide and then introduce single-use plastic at school.
Mr Mario Mallia (photo from MaltaToday)
Responding to whether he felt that this is a missed opportunity for students who may not gave access to adequate nutrition, Mallia said “We can provide the fruit ourselves. Just because something is free doesn’t mean we have to sell our souls and pretend it’s OK… we know the children inside out and their circumstances are known to the staff.”