La Rochelle Girls’ High School is pledging to Rethink the Bag!

Plastic forms a substantial, though largely unnoticed part of our lives, but it is damaging our environment, especially our oceans – an integral part of our diverse and complex planet. It would be almost impossible to give up using plastic entirely, so this campaign asks us to start by doing just one thing: to end our use of plastic shopping bags. These bags are amongst the biggest sources of litter in our environment and it is something for which we can easily find sustainable alternatives.

We have committed ourselves to becoming the first plastic shopping free school zone in Paarl. At the beginning of the third term of 2018 La Rochelle joined the Rethink the Bag campaign run by Hayley McLellan from the Two Oceans Aquarium. We are also in the process of creating our own unique re-usable Larrie shopping bag alternative, which will be sold at the Boutique.

To meet all the criteria for becoming a plastic shopping bag free zone, we need the help of our entire school community. We need a pledge from each learner and parent to start reducing the use of plastic shopping bags now, and eliminating their use at our school.