ARIS BANS SINGLE-USE PLASTIC

ARIS has been known in not turning a blind eye to pressing and subsistent social issues; from Gender Inequality to Modern Day Slavery (during CNN’s #MyFreedomDay Campaign) to Alcoholism and Addiction to Racism to Religious Conflicts and now Plastic Eradication and Environmental Issues, to name a few. Young minds have the power and the greatness to make a large impact.

In the IB Programme, through the IB Learner Profiles and the value of International Mindedness, students are trained to be Global Citizens, as they care about making an impact to the holistic community. At ARIS, this shines bright through our very own social initiative ARISCares, to give back to our ever growing community. 2019 will be the year that ARIS celebrates its 15th Anniversary, and in doing so, we have made the theme of the entire year – ARISCares.

This year has been a particularly big one for ARIS in terms of our initiative to take action on global issues. Climate Change and Plastic Pollution is one of the most perilous issues of our time. With Development defined by the undercurrents of environmental harm, it is time that we reconsider and start taking action as to how we can be proactive in protecting our environment. ARIS has joined the march.

This year was the second year of Earth Day Accra, and our students and staff took part in it. With the theme of this year’s Global Earth Day being Eradicating Plastic Pollution, ARIS took a creative spin by dedicating an entire DIY desk to DIY Décor, Games and Interactive Sessions for an audience, to really spread the awareness of how they can reduce their plastic waste. There were also presentations in which one of our students presented on how we can reduce our Plastic Consumption. Moreover, our students also took part in the Beach Clean Ups.

We as a community took the lessons that we learnt in our participation at Earth Day, and have taken on a more ambitious project to have a long term impact. Our annual science fair this year also took on the theme of “Better Design for Sustainability”. We can all work together to design a future where the exhaustion of natural resources is yet another distant nightmare. Young minds came together to work on various projects that found sustainable solutions to gas emissions, water purification, composting, turning natural waste to cosmetics and more (whole article on Science Fair will be linked).
What came out of the whole day was the realization that we as a growing community have a larger impact than we think. How do we go forward then? Plastic being the most used and disposed of material today, our first course of action is the ARIS Plastic Ban. Our movement of banning single-use plastic within the ARIS Community is underway and our following academic year will be on taking action. Today, ARIS, tomorrow, other communities, let’s take our stand and save the environment now, shall we?