Plastic Free Plymouth Award Tops Day Nurseries with Gold Award

A B Corp certified day nursery chain with 6 nurseries in Devon including Tops Prince Rock, Tops Efford, Tops Stonehouse, Tops Bretonside, Tops Devonport and 1 nursery in Torbay, Tops Babbacombe. were recently awarded Gold Plastic Free Champions by Surfers Against Sewage.

For the last four years Tops have been working with Plymouth’s Surfers Against Sewage (SAS) Plastic Free Communities campaign and, more recently, with the Interreg funded Preventing Plastic Pollution project, to gain Plastic Free Community status for the city.

Tops Day Nurseries have consistently gone above and beyond the SAS requirements, by banning more than three single-use plastic items including cling film, carrier bags, food bags, aprons, and wet-wipes, replacing them with reusable containers, homemade, washable and flushable wipes and other eco-friendly alternatives. Not only this, but Tops have also been very proactive in promoting less plastic by asking suppliers about their plans to reduce waste, make their products recyclable, and to deliver less often. The nursery children taking part in local beach cleans and street cleans and want to be proud of their local area.

The new gold award comes shortly after Tops achieved a Queens Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development, for providing inspiration and being genuinely driving change in the Early Years Sector.

I am so proud of the managers and their team, they have worked really hard on their pledge and to receive the gold awards. This award makes it clear that we are doing our utmost, in the hope that many more will join us to provide a better environment and future for our children.
Amanda Vardy, Regional Manager

We’ve worked with organisations all over the city and the teams at Tops Nurseries are an amazing example of what can be done to remove plastic waste from the environment and to prevent more of it polluting our blue/green space. Their Gold status, which recognises their community work and the environmental plans they follow, is well deserved.
Jackie Young, Plastic Free Plymouth’s co-ordinator

Tops Day Nurseries provides eco-sustainable Early Education and Care for children aged 3 months to school age. Tops also offer before, after-school and Hi5 holiday clubs for children up to the age of 11. They have also recently launched a Hi5’s Forest School , a way for children to have fun and learn whilst being outside

To find out more about our sustainable goals and what we do to be sustainable in practice click here.