Local Girl Scout Troop Researches Plastic Use

Tonight Troop 805 presented about the plastic breakfast bags consumption and waste being produced in NECSD. The following is our speech: 

Troop leader Ms. Rebecca Ramaglia began: Good evening board members and thank you for listening to our troop. The scouts are completing their We Are Agents of Change Journey and are here to present an idea they have for our district. 

Scout 1-Joleen: Our Troop 805 has learned how to be strong individuals and leaders. We have learned how to be team members and how to build our team members up. To finish our journey as Ms. Rebecca said, we would like to help our school community grow and make positive changes. We noticed that after each morning when we eat school breakfast, we throw away a lot of plastic bags. We wanted to know how much we were throwing away as a community so we investigated an estimate of both schools our troop members attend. 

Scout 2-Leah: If New Windsor School has 300 plastic bags of breakfast every day of the school year, our school is wasting 54,000 plastic bags each year. If Horizon has 250 students getting a plastic bag each day for breakfast everyday of the school year, our school is wasting 45,000 plastic bags each year. 

Scout 3-Faith: If all 13 schools average the same waste in our district, our school district is wasting 693,500 plastic bags a year. This plastic waste is concerning considering how it hurts animals, pollutes our oceans, and eventually will harm us. According to a National Geographic article on plastic pollution, we have become a throw-away culture with single-use plastics accounting for 40% of the plastic that are produced. This is why we as a troop are concerned with our school waste, because the few minute use can be translated into an item that persists in our environment for about 300 years. 

Scout 4-Autumn: According to Earth.org

1. The world generates 300 million tons of plastic waste a year

2. The US produces 42 million metric tons of plastic every year, the highest in the world

3. More than 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year

4. Ocean plastic pollution on track to rise metric tons by 2040

5. 100,000 animals die from plastic entanglement each year

6. Humans ingest 5 grams of plastic every week

7. Plastics set to release more GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions in the US than coal by 2030

8. Covid-19 has added 25,900 tons of plastic pollution in the ocean

Scout 5- Natalie: We would like to help NECSD to fix our part in this environmental crisis. We have a few ideas for solutions: 

1. Try to reduce the amount of plastic used to per room rather than per student

2. Get bins for each student to reuse each day. Although this might need extra consideration for storage and cleaning

or

3. Begin a partnership with the grocery stores or companies that help them recycle plastic by picking up from our schools. 

Troop 805 would like to offer our time to pilot any programs in the future alongside Mr. Camt and New Windsor School if any program calls for volunteers to help with this solution. We in Troop 805- Natalie, Faith, Leah, Joleen, and Autumn- thank you, the board of education for listening to us and hope to be part of the solution.