Refillable bottles for De Klaver primary school pupils
On Friday 4 December the Port of Rotterdam Authority handed out refillable bottles to pupils of the De Klaver primary school in the Heijplaat district of Rotterdam. This was done as part of the ‘Clean port, clean ocean campaign’ aimed at combating litter. Every year, the Port Authority collects nearly 1,300 tonnes of waste along the shoreline. That works out at about 43 full truckloads.
School Head Louisette Bronsgeest looks on as Remco Neumann (Port of Rotterdam Authority) hands 90 refillable bottles to Geert-Jan van der Spek, a teacher at the De Klaver primary school in the Heijplaat district of Rotterdam
The teachers of De Klaver aim to use this initiative to try and help their pupils kick their habit of consuming sweet beverages from single-use bottles. “We were wondering how to get the children to drink water instead. Maybe nice-looking bottles would be the answer. But then there was the issue of all that plastic. So we set out to find recycled plastic and refillable bottles. That would be nice and sustainable,” says the initiator Geert-Jan van der Spek. The Port of Rotterdam Authority wanted to sponsor the initiative due to the ‘Clean port, clean ocean’ campaign. The Port Authority aims to use this campaign to raise awareness of the impact of litter on shipping, wildlife and the environment among visitors to the port.