Harbor High Climate Justice Club Aims to Curb Plastic Waste

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): From saving the marbled murrelet from bully birds with “moop kits,” to conducting a plastic waste audit of their school and educating peers about reducing plastic waste, the Climate Justice Club at Harbor High School is serious about conserving the environment, especially Monterey Bay.

“Last year we went really deep on the animals and realized the human impact on our flora and fauna friends,” said Harbor High School education specialist Melissa Schilling. “We learned that 60% of sea birds and 100% of anchovies have microplastics in their bodies and that’s moving up the food chain and causing hormonal shifts in animals. Since we can’t control the whole community, we can try to make a difference on campus and hope that it spreads outwards from there.”

Schilling leads the Climate Justice Club, which recently completed an audit of plastic waste at Harbor High School with a little help from the city of Santa Cruz, which loaned the students an industrial scale to weigh the plastic garbage they collected on campus.

Through the audit, the club learned that on average each of the 58 classrooms at Harbor High produces about 4.7 pounds of plastic waste per week over the approximately 180-day school year. The data about plastic garbage they gathered in the first round of collection will serve as a baseline for a continued study of plastic waste by the student group.

“We worked with our woodshop class and they built us burlap bag collection sites and we collected single-use plastic yogurt containers and water bottles across a section of our campus,” said Schilling. “And Mr. Sanborn from the math department extrapolated the data to represent the whole campus. We’ll compare that control with the next round of collection.”

 Wednesday afternoon, the student members of the Climate Justice Club presented their findings on plastic waste science fair style with the help of dioramas and posters such as one created by junior Fern Chongpiyalert and sophomore River Loftis.

“Our presentation is about the animals that are dying because they eat plastics,” said Loftis. “Whales have been found to have as much as 88 pounds of plastic in their stomachs, and plastic bags in the ocean can get attached to animals like dolphins. Also, it takes 400 years or more for many single-use plastics to break down. That’s a big deal.”

Loftis mentioned that microplastics can be found throughout Monterey Bay and that was what influenced their project’s focus.

 “We want to make sure that all animals are healthy and safe,” said Loftis. “I see plastic all over the beaches sometimes and it takes hours to clean it up.”

Junior Kevin Martinez and sophomore Edwin Sanchez focused on the effects of plastic trash on Monterey Bay’s submarine canyon and the marine life living there.

 “People are throwing away their garbage in the sea and it’s bad for marine life,” said Martinez. “It’s damaging their homes and the environment. People should keep their plastic garbage out of the sea.”

Freshman Climate Justice Club member Jorel Alba-Acosta explained how fellow club member Chongpiyalert created the design on the reusable cups the club is selling to help reduce waste in the community at large and fundraise for future field trips. Alba-Acosta stressed that people should pick up litter even if it isn’t their own because that’s what it takes to keep it out of the ocean and marine life.

“We have to do what we can to make this world a better place,” he said.

After the club members presented their research to fellow students, Lily Arvanis, a representative from California State Parks spoke to the group of aspiring ecologists about the importance of marine protected areas.

“Marine protected areas protect the diversity and abundance of marine life, the habitat they depend on and the integrity of marine ecosystems,” said Arvanis. “That’s really what they’re all about. They’re here to protect the animals. the plants and the habitat — all parts of the ecosystem.”

The Climate Justice Club, which also created a map of all on-campus water refill stations, will continue its study of plastic waste on campus moving toward Earth Day and after and will also begin a letter-writing campaign to try and bring in a bulk yogurt bar to the lunch room that uses reusable containers.

The Climate Justice Club’s reusable mugs and tumblers — designed by the club’s favored artist Chongpiyalert and with graphic arts help from junior Scout Bauman — can be purchased at local shops like Ethos and iCrave in Capitola and Home/Work in Seabright. California State Parks gift shops will also be carrying the drinkware this summer.

“Each mug that we sell represents one student on an outdoor, hands-on field trip,” said Schilling.

Courtesy: www.santacruzsentinel.com