Back to school plastic free!
It is back to school season for kids and adults alike. This usually means a backpack full of plastic school and lunch supplies. Have you ever thought about the list of supplies teachers expect kids to buy each year and how much of these supplies end up in the landfill at the end of the year? The Wisdom Supply Company conducted audits on school supplies and found that most school supplies are made of plastic and are just dumped in the trash at the end of the school year. We McSisters have learned it doesn’t have to be that way. In our efforts to eliminate single-use plastic, we’ve discovered lots of plastic free options specifically related to school.
The Plastic Pollution Coalition recently hosted an instructive webinar on how to go back to school plastic free. You can watch the webinar at https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/learn/webinars.
The following are very helpful resources and products from the webinar.
· Ban Plastic From School Lunchrooms and Protect Children's Health
· Back to School: Avoid PFAS in you kids’ backpack
· Go Back to School Plastic Free
· Mount Madonna 5th Grade Environmental Project
· Plastic-Free Back to School Guide
· Plastic-Free Campuses & Education
· Service Learning: Growing Action from the Roots of Passion
· Ahimsa Stainless steel food ware and other great information.
It’s inspiring to learn about the amazing work people are doing all over the country to tackle the plastic crisis for the children who are inheriting the plastic from the generations before them. The following were the webinar presenters:
Jessica Cambell, Lower School Program Director & Educator at Mount Madonna School
Debby Lee Cohen, Executive Director & Founder of Cafeteria Culture
Heather Itzla, Founder of Wisdom Supply Co.
Why does it matter? Why should we eliminate plastic from school and lunch supplies? As we’ve discussed in some of our blogs, all these single-use plastics are made with toxic materials that harm our health and the environment. Back to school is a great opportunity for everyone to learn about the toxicity and dangers of single-use plastic and most importantly how to advocate with your school to change practices. Together we can keep our children safe from the harmful health and environmental impacts of plastic.
What can you do?
To learn more about how to return to school plastic free check out this link: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2022/8/23/plastic-free-back-to-school
Host a showing of Microplastic Madness at your school and create plastic free lunch days.
Pack your lunches in reusable containers.
Purchase plastic free school supplies such as these great pens: https://www.amazon.com/Agile-Friendly-Supplies-Stationary-Students/dp/B085WBZRHQ/ref=asc_
Check out all the great resources listed above.