Ban the Bag?

In thinking about ways children can become involved in a community service project in a very real, meaningful way, a few of us have been talking about an anti- plastic bag crusade. As you may know, the abundance of these bags is truly devastating to the environment. It was brought to my attention that WE (meaning my wonderful 2nd and 3rd graders and me) might be just the people to expand this idea into a real campaign. The enthusiasm my class displayed in our cloth grocery bag project, along with the love these children have for all animals, leads me to think that this may very well be true. Perhaps we, like other activists in other towns, could convince our local shopkeepers to voluntarily stop the use of all plastic bags. It has been pointed out that this fits in not only with our green school philosophy, but would also teach the “nuts and bolts” of real social activism. Very powerful stuff!

Here is a short video I found on youtube - watch it if you wish:



I have already heard from a couple of you, who volunteered to help me assess the appropriateness of a much longer BBC video. This was viewed by Todd Austin, S-K Board President. He advised that the video does show animals in distress and the desiccated carcasses of birds killed by the plastic waste in their stomachs, but this is not the dominant content. If you would like to be on this committee, please let me know. Before I show it to our children, I want to make sure that it is not too disturbing.

As I (and others) think of ways to make this happen, I will keep you updated. Please feel free to contact me if you have ideas