ENTHUSIASTIC young environmentalists took to the streets of Kendal to encourage businesses and residents to ditch plastic straws.

The year five pupils from St Mark’s School, Natland gathered at the Birdcage to raising awareness of the 'devastating effects' plastic straws have on the environment.

Armed with placards and petitions, the youngster spoke to residents and canvassed businesses to help them understand there were alternatives available.

Cass Ainsworth, student teacher at the school, started the Last Straw campaign with help from year five teacher Laura Whittaker.

"The children are aware of the pollution of plastic and are very concerned about it," said Cass. "We are hoping that we can reduce the amount of plastic straws in Kendal, if not eradicate them."

She is hoping that if it gets enough signatures the petition will go to Parliament and the harm that plastic straws cause will be discussed by MPs.

"It's really important we get these young children at this age to be savvy and environmentally friendly," she said. "Because they're our future and they're the ones that are hopefully going to save our planet."

One of those in attendance was Freya Turner, 10, who wants to be a scientist when she grows up.

"This is the world," she said. "We don't have anywhere else to go. If we ruin this planet, that's it. There's not another planet for us."

Over the past five weeks, the children have been learning about the devastating impact that plastic has on sea life.

Erin O'Loughlin said it was important to fight plastic because animals were 'just like us' and they were eating plastic straws and dying.

"They've got hearts and it's not fair," the 10-year-old said. "If we were them, we wouldn't want to be killed by plastic."

Jamie Noreci added that even when plastic straws photodegrade (decompose by light), they leave chemicals in the ocean which still harm animals.

"People don't really think about this stuff but in 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish," he said.

St Mark's has been making a concerted effort to reduce the amount of plastic it uses and Cass said the hope was to make it plastic free.

"It's a whole school approach," she said. "The next step will be to do a plastic free July where the whole school looks as reducing plastic and eradicating it altogether.

"This is teaching the pupils about how these tiny little things we do as individuals can have a huge impact."

The students were supported on the day by representatives from both Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Kendal College.