FUNDRAISING – Eco-friendly fundraising
Invest and reuse Buying one-use food packaging is
expensive when compared to reusable items in the long term. Although the washing-up may not seem ideal, it does mean there’ll be a reduction in litter at events. Consider investing in crockery and cutlery, seeking donations from local businesses, or holding a crockery amnesty. Ask pupils to each bring a mug to school one day, possibly in exchange for wearing non-school uniform. When buying reusable glasses, try to source sturdy items such as those supplied by Glass Free (
glassfree.co.uk) to avoid any dangerous breakages.
Compostable cutlery If you’re not keen on the idea of all that washing up, how about disposable alternatives? Paper plates may be seen as a good alternative to plastic serving vessels, but they’re not recyclable once used, as the food and grease bonds with the paper fibres and cannot be separate during the recycling process. Companies such as Vegware (
vegware.com) offer completely compostable catering disposables made from renewable or recycled materials. Vegware stocks everything from hot or cold drinks cups to takeaway food packaging, and these products can be recycled along with food waste.
BYO discount Another option is to ask people to
bring their own cups, offering them a better deal if they do. Rather than
giving a discount if they do bring their own, though, offer a penalty if they don’t – e.g. 25p more for someone without their own cup than someone with one. This way, people will be more likely to take part. This is a system customers are getting used to in coffee shops anyway, so it shouldn’t be unfamiliar to them – and it also avoids lots of washing-up afterwards for your PTA!
Plastic-free tombola Sending plastic cups home for
families to fill and return as stock for the tombola is great for making money for nothing, but you can easily substitute the plastic for a greener container to make it great for the planet too. Think of biodegradable alternatives, or hold a jam jar amnesty as glass can be
easily recycled (and donations will keep costs even lower!).
Eco-friendly glitter We know PTAs love glitter, but it can
be so damaging to wildlife and the environment. Bioglitter is an eco-friendly alternative to plastic- based glitter and is made from plant-derived materials. It’s the only glitter on the market that is proven to biodegrade into harmless substances in the environment. Visit
discoverbioglitter.com for a list of suppliers that sell Bioglitter products.
Tackle your tuck shop When selling tuck shop items, you’ll
find most things come in plastic packaging. One option is to buy sweets in bulk and run a pick ’n’ mix stand or make up your own paper
Eco-friendly prizes
It’s easy to buy small cheap plastic items, but these will no doubt break or be forgotten about after the event. The aim for a good stall prize is to avoid plastic altogether where possible, or ensure the item is good quality so that it will be reused and won’t break within hours. Here are some more environmentally friendly prize ideas that are less
likely to end up in landfill: l Packets of seeds – try peas, sweet peas or beetroot, which all have flexible sowing times and are
easy to handle. l Seedlings – if you have a green- fingered parent ask them to cultivate some seedlings. This is inexpensive, exciting for the
children, and educational too. l Books – ask for donations at a mufti day or scour charity shops – some offer children’s books for
50p or less. l Art supplies – crayons, colouring
pencils and pavement chalk. l Stationery – make packs with
notebooks, pencils and rubbers. l Games – card games, wooden
yo-yos, skipping ropes. l Traditional toys – wooden beads, cat’s cradle, French knitting dolly,
marbles, die-cast toy cars, felt
finger puppets, teddies. l Raisins – a healthy choice in
recyclable packaging. l Homemade seed bombs – The Land Trust, The Wildlife Trusts and RHS all have recipes, and they can be made colourful with natural
food colouring. l Vouchers for other stalls – if the vouchers are for games stalls then this will cost you nothing as a prize. Just make sure you don’t offer too many of them, as otherwise people will be constantly running between stalls and never
winning an actual prize! l Token stall – with a token system you can go for quality over quantity. Rather than winning prizes, children win tokens that they can then take to a prize stall, where they can exchange them for a larger prize based on the number of tokens they have. This means all of your stalls can be ‘prize every time’ without it being costly. This system is sure to encourage people to stay at the fair for longer, and will lead to busier stalls as children try to win enough tokens for their favourite prize!
pta.co.uk SPRING 2019 43
IMAGES: OLEGGANKO; CHEREMUHA; MAN AS THEP/
ISTOCKPHOTO.COM
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