PUPILS from two West Fife primaries have urged Fife Council to bin polystyrene lunch boxes.

The disposable containers were introduced in schools across Fife after lockdown and youngsters from both Dalgety Bay and Limekilns primaries are campaigning for the local authority to find an alternative.

Kim Blasco, from Plastic-Free Fife, said the polystyrene boxes are used for transporting meals to classrooms and are accompanied by plastic cutlery – since ditched by the council after kids complained.

"While appropriate measures to protect against COVID-19 are of course essential, there are a number of issues with single-use polystyrene containers," he explained.

"Polystyrene food containers are not recycled in Fife and will therefore end up in landfill where they will remain for hundreds of years, or worse still, escape into the environment."

After Fife Council's catering services confirmed they had no current plans to make changes, Plastic-Free Fife asked primary schools in plastic-free communities to raise the issue with the council and their MSPs.

Primary 7 pupils at Dalgety Bay Primary School wrote two letters expressing their frustration. Lily Murray said the new policy was “shocking and careless”.

She said: “In the end, my generation will have to deal with, and pay the price for, the situation we, in schools, are partly responsible for. Small actions like using reusable plastics could make a world of a difference.”

Pupils from Room 14 added: “We would really like you to find a way for us to get back to eating off reusable plates with reusable cutlery, as the environment that we live in means a lot to us.

"It is our job to protect it the best that we can, even in times of extreme difficulty. We know this is a difficult situation but it is for our future, as currently we fear that we may not have one.”

Within a week of them sending off their letters, the council had replaced the single-use plastic cutlery with disposable wooden cutlery.

Primary 6 students at Limekilns Primary also penned their opinions.

Phoebe Mason said her class all agreed that the way lunches were delivered needed to change “because it is destroying our world” while Emily Craig suggested “a solution might be using reusable plates covered with tin foil”.

Mr Blasco added: "Plastic-Free Fife urges all primary schools in Fife to raise this issue with Fife Council so that we can all return to reusables as soon as possible and avoid needlessly exacerbating the climate and environmental crisis."