Compostable aprons? Vaughan students offer solutions to plastics pollution

Some of the creative ideas also included an app for ‘proper recyclable practices’

Yorkregion.com
April 12, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Did you know that a crushed water bottle isn’t recyclable? Did you know that takeout containers that are black in colour are also not recyclable?

If you are shocked to know these small tidbit of information, count yourself with dozens of students from seven different schools in Vaughan who didn’t know.

The mainly high school students attended a mandatory ICE session on how to reduce plastics at city hall on Wednesday, April 10.

Before delving into offering their own solutions, the students had to see with their own eyes microplastics -- usually less than five millimeters in size -- from real-life samples coming from Lake Ontario  and Tommy Thompson Park.

“They were pretty surprised about what they are finding, and a lot of kids were asking me, did you put this in here,” Jasmine Green, program manager at the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, told York Region Media.

The authority brought four microscopes to show the students of how minute plastic is making its way in our waters, lands and again in us in case fish ends up swallowing it or thinking its food.

One of the surprised students is Nigel Thevakumar, a Grade 11 from Stephen Lewis.

“Before I didn’t think of plastic as a big issue, like i just thought it was an everyday thing,” he said. “But I see it has a big impact on our earth and people don’t recognize it.”

Among other realizations many of these students discovered is that where to put what is in the recycle bin is an issue.

“We can put up posters, a lot of people don’t know exactly even though things are already labeled,” Tristine Pham, a Grade 10 student from Woodbridge College, said. “People don’t really check them, let’s be honest.”

No wonder that one of the solutions these students gave is to create an app to educate students about the “proper recyclable practices,” said Deneena Davis, a curriculum consultant at YRDSB.

After being with the enigmatic plastic use required in food safety, their ideas also included “compostable aprons for the food industry,” and “zero plastic launch programs in schools,” Davis added.

Vaughan high school students pose questions to find solutions in hopes of reducing plastic. (Photo by Dina Al-Shibeeb)

Amidst all these high school students, there were elementary school students from R.L. Graham P.S. who were featured by a CBC documentary for their advocacy around plastic.

They brained stormed on how to create environmentally friendly packaging for fundraisers.

The high schoolers also mulled over various real life problems including “how to help fast food restaurants meet their need of change when it comes to effective plastic disposal? Or simply, “how might small local businesses reduce plastic dependency while maintaining cost?”

With students like Pham leaving the event feeling that she learned so much, she ruminates that not everyone has the same exposure.

“Not a lot of people are invited for these type of events as it happens twice a year,” she said, calling for schools to have assemblies to raise awareness and educate about this issue.