Girl Scout Troop 805 recently presented their findings of a research project about plastic bag waste to the Newburgh Enlarged City School District Board of Education. The research was about plastic breakfast bags consumption and waste they believe is occurring in the school district.
Troop Leader Rebecca Ramaglia addressed the Board by thanking them for listening to the scouts, who are completing their “We Are Agents of Change Journey.” She explained that the Troop was presenting an idea they have for the District.
Girl Scout Joleen 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.” She explained that the scouts wanted to know how much they were throwing away so they investigated an estimate from the schools they attend.
Girl Scout Leah estimated that if New Windsor School has 300 plastic bags of breakfast every day throughout the school year, that school would be wasting 54,000 plastic bags each year. If Horizons has 250 students receiving a plastic bag daily, that school would be wasting 45,000 plastic bags each year.
Girl Scout Faith summed it all up: If all 13 schools average the same waste, the District is wasting 693,500 plastic bags per year. “This plastic waste is concerning considering how it hurts animals, pollutes our oceans, and eventually will harm us,” she said.
Girl Scout Autumn cited Earth.org with statistics of how much plastic waste is occurring across the world per year, as well as the impacts on the environment.
Girl Scout Natalie explained that her troop would like to help the District fix the environmental waste. She proposed the troop’s ideas for solutions, including reducing the plastic to each room rather than per student, using reusable bins, or beginning a partnership with companies to recycle the plastic.
Troop 805 offered their time to pilot any programs in the future alongside Mr. Camt and the New Windsor School.
