About this pledge
- A ready-to-use pledge for a class, a year group or a whole school. Choose the tier that fits, fill in the blanks, sign it, display it, and (if you want) add your school to the public School Pledge Board on this site. The board shows school name, country and tier only; no pupil data. Each school gets an embeddable badge and a link straight to Plastic Clever Schools and Plastic Free Schools sign-up, because those awards are where the real accreditation lives; we feed them rather than replace them.
- Made and funded by No Plastic Today. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Edit freely.
Tier 1 — Starter pledge (any class, any age)
- We, the pupils and staff of ______________________, know that only about 9% of the world's plastic waste is recycled (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2019 figures: oecd.org/en/about/news/press-releases/2022/06/global-plastic-waste-set-to-almost-triple-by-2060.html). So we will use less in the first place.
- This term we pledge to:
- 1. Count our single-use plastic for one week, so we know our number.
- 2. Choose one swap and stick to it for 30 days.
- 3. Tell our families what we found and what we changed.
- Our number this term: ______ items a week (about ______ grams).
- Our swap: ______________________.
- Signed by the class on ______________ (date). We will count again on ______________.
Tier 2 — Three-item pledge (matches the "eliminate three items" target used by Plastic Free Schools)
- We, ______________________ School, pledge to remove three single-use plastic items from our school within one school year.
- Item 1: ______________________ replaced by ______________________ from ______________ (date).
- Item 2: ______________________ replaced by ______________________ from ______________ (date).
- Item 3: ______________________ replaced by ______________________ from ______________ (date).
- We will measure before and after with a five-day audit each term and publish the result to the whole school. We expect to avoid about ______ kg of plastic a year.
- We will make sure every pupil has access to free drinking water and somewhere to refill a bottle.
- We will ask our suppliers and canteen, in writing, to help us.
- Responsible adult: ______________________. Pupil leads: ______________________.
- Signed: head teacher ______________________ ; pupil council ______________________ ; date ______________.
Tier 3 — Plastic Clever pledge (for schools working towards Plastic Clever Schools or a similar award)
- We, ______________________ School, pledge to become a plastic-clever school. That means:
- Evidence: we have audited our plastic use across lunchboxes, the canteen, classrooms and events, and we publish our numbers.
- Investigate: our pupils have investigated where our plastic comes from and where it goes, using verified sources.
- Act: we have removed at least three single-use items, we run a refill culture (water, cups, containers), our events are single-use free, and our procurement policy prefers reusable and refillable options.
- Provenance: we only use teaching materials that clearly state who made and funded them, and we do not use plastics-industry-sponsored curricula.
- Voice: our pupils have written to at least one company, council or decision-maker about plastic.
- Keep going: we re-audit every year and report the trend.
- Signed: head teacher ______________________ ; chair of governors or school board ______________________ ; pupil leads ______________________ ; date ______________.
Display text (for a poster or the school website)
- "We counted. We chose. We changed. ______________________ School has pledged to cut single-use plastic. Our number: ______ kg a year avoided. Ask us how."
How to add your school to the board
- Go to the School Pledge Board on this site, choose your tier, and submit school name, country and a school email address (used only to check the school is real; not published). Pledges are moderated before they appear. You will receive a badge you can embed and a link to the Plastic Clever Schools and Plastic Free Schools programmes if you want formal accreditation.