A schoolboy aged just seven became Holyrood’s youngest petitioner as he put forward a free water bottle campaign for every pupil in Scotland.
Environmentally-minded Callum Isted wants the government to provide every child in Scotland with a free metal container for water.
Taking his seat among MSPs in parliament, he explained how animals get hurt by dumped plastics and he worries about pollution levels in seas and oceans.
I wanted to go to Nicola Sturgeon’s house to go and speak to her about the bottles but my mum said it wasn’t allowed.
– Callum Isted, 7
Meeting the first minister
Callum, who is in primary 3, said he had wanted to take the call directly to Nicola Sturgeon before he created his petition last August.
And having won support of the impressed politicians on the petitions committee, he was given an audience with the first minister in parliament.
He told MSPs: “I wanted to go to Nicola Sturgeon’s house to go and speak to her about the bottles, but my mum said it wasn’t allowed, and then we looked online and found the petitions.”
Callum told the parliament’s public petitions committee he noticed last year how many children in school were using plastic bottles.
He added: “Instead of getting a reusable plastic one, I would have got a reusable metal one because the reusable plastic ones break too easily.”
The seven-year-old, from Livingstone in West Lothian, has already managed to raise more than £1,000 for metal bottles through a sponsored hillwalk in Edinburgh last year.
Already a veteran, Callum has campaigned to fix broken taps in school and went to Glasgow’s COP26 climate summit in November.
MSPs full of praise
He was praised for his appearance in front of the committee by former Scottish Tory leader Jackson Carlaw, who had introduced him to MSPs.
The petition will be taken on for further consideration.
Under the rules, any member of the public or organisation is allowed to bring forward a petition to the Scottish Parliament.
The subject matter must be about a devolved issues that are relevant to Holyrood lawmakers.