Students working to save planet one plastic fork at a time
Angela Gemmill | CBC News | Posted: September 10, 2018 9:00 AM | Last Updated: September 10, 2018
Rainbow School Board challenging students, staff to avoid using plastic, single-use materials
There is a challenge going out to students and staff within the Rainbow District School Board.
During Pollution Prevention Week, September 17-21, school communities are encouraged to go litterless and find alternatives to plastic, single use materials, like bags, cutlery and straws.
Sustainable practices and green initiatives are already important endeavours at R.L.Beattie Public School in Sudbury.
Last year, the elementary school was awarded gold level status by Ontario Eco-Schools, an environmental certification program for schools that work to reduce their ecological footprint.
Maeve LeDuc just started grade 5, but she already knows a lot about saving the environment.
Last year her class planted trees and made a pollinating garden on the school's property on Loach's Road.
She understands the challenge issued by the school board.
"In your lunches you're trying not to use lots of plastic bags or juice boxes or anything that keeps garbage, like chocolate bars or something like that. Cause that all goes into the garbage and then the garbage goes into the dump and we're trying to prevent from not having lots of that," Maeve said.
She says having less garbage is a way to help the planet.
"It's a way to help all the animals and the environment survive, so you have a better life."
"When you're done with this what happens to it?"
"It's part of our everyday routine, learning about the environment," science teacher Emilia Corsi said.
She and her science classes have been behind a lot of the environmental initiatives undertaken at R.L. Beattie Public School.
Corsi says she tries to teach her students about sustainable practices and simple ways they can make a difference.
"We talk about using reusable Tupperware in their lunches, and not to use plastic and to really think about what they bring into their home, like for toys and what not. I always ask them, when you're done with this what happens to it in the world?"
She's proud of the students' efforts to go green in so many different ways.
"These kids are going to go on to high school, and I know that they're going to carry this through. They're going to be wonderful citizens for the environment as they get older, because they're starting young and I know it's going to stay with them."
Corsi also hopes the school can achieve platinum level status this year with the Eco-Schools program.
Recycling, composting important
Grade 6 student Austin Conroy is part of the school's Go Green team, which collects all the school's weekly recycling. He says composting is also important.
"Instead of throwing [compost] in the landfill you can add on to the environment instead of destroy it."
He's also prepared for the upcoming challenge, in fact R.L.Beattie already does something similar.
"At school there is actually a garbage-less lunch day, so we have to bring lunches that don't provide any garbage in it," Austin said.
Plastic versus stainless steel cutlery
This summer R.L. Beattie Public School teacher Lynne Lamothe conducted a cutlery drive.
The school collected stainless steel forks so that when it holds its weekly pasta lunch no one will have to use plastic cutlery.
"Every time we use a plastic fork that plastic fork stays on the planet forever. Every single piece of plastic ever made is still on this planet."
Lamothe adds that there is a cost to the convenience of using plastic.
"Plastic makes life easy, but easy isn't always right."
She says small changes over time add up to a big difference environmentally.
"Every little thing that we do is something that contributes to a healthy planet long term," Lamothe said.
Making a difference
Grade 6 student Sophia Mathur says last year her class helped to clean-up garbage around the school's property, where they found shopping carts and plastic bags.
"We've also been trying to get an outdoor classroom, so we can observe all the animals, while being taught about them too," she said.
Sophia encourages others to refuse plastic straws when out at restaurants. She also says she and her mother don't use plastic bags, instead they bring along cloth bags to carry grocery items.
Sophia hopes that other people follow suit and make similar changes in their own lives.
"I'm actually just very happy and excited because we just get to make a difference in this world."