Kitchener high school finds unique way to bring awareness to single-use plastics

Single-use plastics are hard to avoid these days. Even with new regulations from provincial and federal governments to stop producing and selling single-use plastics, the ease and convenience of them still holds appeal for many.

Rockway Mennonite Collegiate high school in Kitchener wanted to highlight our complicated love/hate relationship with single-use plastics, and they've done it in a very unique way; through an environmental cover of Joan Jett's "I Hate Myself For Loving You."

Teacher, and lead of The Think Project, Sara Wahl, came up with the concept for the video in an effort to raise awareness about the harm single-use plastics have on the environment.

"This project was giving people an opportunity to pause and think and reflect a little bit about that convenient item that they may be used for 10 minutes to take a drink or to eat a take out order is going to be with us on the planet for the 500 years," said Wahl.

Project put on hold during pandemic

The project started before the pandemic and, with restrictions in place and students unable to attend school in-person, it was put on hold.

"This project ... has had many groups of students actually that have worked on it over the years," said Wahl, adding she estimates around 90 students helped bring the video to life.

The students involved includes lead singer Pax Sellar Voll, a Grade 11 student who provided the vocals. And co-director and editor Grade 12 student Willem Hedrick, who spent hundreds of hours putting the visuals together.

"Countless hours, day after day ... every day during a spare I have, I would edit for an hour and then I'd go home. Sometimes edit for like eight hours straight," said Hedrick, who plans to go university next year for digital media and marketing.

And Grade 11 student Samantha Loberto who was part of the production team and spent hours painstakingly sewing hundreds and hundreds of plastic bags onto painter's suits in order to create the "bag monsters" that can be seen chasing Sellar Voll through the halls and grounds of the school.

Another notable visual that can be seen throughout the video is a large art installation of letters that spell out the word "think." The piece was constructed by alumnus Ellery Ezekiel, who learned how to weld for the project.

"We stuffed them full of single use plastic and it's made quite a powerful art piece that really presents people with this contradiction of convenience versus the long-term consequences of our choices," said Wahl.

The installation can be seen on display at TheMuseum for the entire month of April.

Hear more about the Think project on our CBC Listen Page.

And you can watch the full video of Rockway Mennonite Collegiate's cover of "I Hate Myself For Loving You" below.