We want to protect our planet and make it safer for everyone, but this protection has to start somewhere, and our young people are our future. 

My daughter wrote to Theresa May last year and now we are working together to campaign for purposeful plastics education in schools. 

The Education Secretary, The RT Hon Damian Hinds, MP,  has urged all schools to eliminate their use of single use plastics by 2022. He has called on senior leaders in schools to stop using items such as plastic bags, straws, bottles and food packaging in favour of sustainable alternatives, and invited them to start a conversation with pupils about the effects discarded plastics have on the environment and wildlife. 

We want children to be educated in United Kingdom schools about these changes,  from ages of compulsory schooling. So from age 3, through to age 18, each term there should be compulsory of education around the purposeful use of plastics.

Just as dropping litter has been taught, road safety, personal and sexual education, we need to educate our children in using less plastic, but recycling and re-using the plastic we do use. 

Right through the school compulsory years of education, children and young adults should be provided with information and education on how harmful waste can be, specifically plastic which ends up in the oceans damaging animals and our environment. 

The lessons should not be completely on plastic waste but on the up-cycling or recycling of plastic, creative artwork, environmental and financial benefits.