This year’s Folk Culture Festival at Son Tra High School was a resounding success, attracting over 1,500 students, teachers, parents, and guests. In addition to the vibrant folk culture activities, a notable highlight of this year’s festival was the school’s effort to reduce plastic waste.
Thanks to the use of banana leaves and reusable items, the festival booths significantly reduced plastic waste. Students, teachers, and most of the guests actively changed their habits, such as bringing their own food containers or returning plates and cups after use. These small changes will contribute significantly to environmental protection.
Anh Mai, a 10th-grade female student, shared: “Although it may be unfamiliar at first, if we all do it, this habit will easily become natural.”
Some students mentioned that not using single-use plastics made preparations for the booths more complicated. However, they fully supported this change for the long-term benefit of the environment. Son Hai, an 11th-grade male student, expressed: “If the school canteen also switched to using reusable items in the future, I would fully support it.”
The festival not only attracted students from the school but also from other schools. Quang Anh, a student from Tran Phu High School, commented: “My school also organized a festival this morning. I see that the difference here is that the booths do not use single-use plastics. This is very good for the environment, but it also causes some inconvenience when having to return plates and cups. However, I think this is a necessary habit and I will try to adapt.”
If each person uses one single-use plastic item, the total amount of plastic waste generated would be enormous. According to Mr. Cao Van Bo, Secretary of the Youth Union of teachers, last year’s event produced an amount of plastic waste equivalent to a truckload. Thanks to the application of plastic reduction measures, the amount of waste this year has decreased by more than 80%. At the end of the event, the Vice Principal happily shared: “All the teachers in the school said that this is the first time after a festival that the school has been so clean.” The person in charge of hygiene was also surprised: “The waste collection area is much less than in previous years, it’s much less hard work. In the past few times, the two of us had to clean up for the whole next day. Today, the schoolyard is almost free of plastic waste.” These sharing show that the school’s efforts have paid off. With such a large number of participants in an event with organized food, the fact that Son Tra High School has successfully implemented the reduction of single-use plastics is a commendable effort.
This year’s festival at Son Tra High School is proof that schools can completely organize similar events and festivals without generating much plastic waste.
Let’s all reduce the use of single-use plastics to protect our health and the environment!”
