Environmental Solutions: POPS & Spork

Speakers: Brenda de Luna and Young Environmentalists

                                This mural is now hanging in the Metropolitan Water Museum.

Temecula Library

 30600 Pauba Road, Temecula, CA 92592

 "Social Hour" starts at 6:00 PM.  Pizza will be served

Presentation Time: 6:30 PM

February 9, 2017

Brenda de Luna’s project is inspiring and I am anxious to hear their presentations.
Brenda de Luna wrote:

“Last year began with a competition in which I invited all my 8th graders to make a plastic solution proposal in hopes of being accepted to the Plastic Ocean Pollution Solutions (POPS), teen summit.  This was put on by Algalita Marine Research and took place at the Dana Point Marine Institute.  Our proposal was to begin a recycling program at our school and educate our students about the plastic problem.  We got into POPS and came back energized!  

Not only did we begin a recycling program, before the start of the recycling program we did 2 trash audits for both the middle and high school lunch areas and purchased enough metal travel sporks for the entire school and staff. 

We used the Algalita slide show and our data from the trash audit to educate our students about the plastic problem and we made up pledge cards and asked students to sign them before they received their Spork promising to never bring single use plastic utensils to school anymore.

After presenting to the entire school, we took the collected pledge cards and made a giant mural, 5 1/2 feet long out of the pledge cards.  This mural is now hanging in the Metropolitan Water Museum.

• This year we are expanding our presentation to the elementary schools in Hemet and challenging them to take up the torch and find their own way to be a solution to the plastic problem.

• Our HS students are looking into local restaurants and challenging them to go single use plastic and Styrofoam free.  

• Three of our HS members are now peer advisors for this year's POPS summit and the rest of the club is going to POPS for the first time.

• Our middle school club did not get into POPS. They attended the Sea of Change youth summit on January 29, 2017.  “

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February 13, 2017 - After the Program:

The presentation was great.  The young girls’ performance was above my expectation.  They enjoyed presenting their realistic approach to managing environmental damage from plastic containers and utensils at their school.   

Their introduction to the scope of damages especially to the marine environment was well placed.  They reminded us about how the degradation of plastic would release estrogen to the human food chain.  The common practice of covering the inner surface of metal cans with a thin layer of plastic film, an attempt to reduce the interaction of acidic food with metal surfaces, is not without consequences on our health.  

We all need to encourage other schools to follow Brenda DeLuna's initiatives and create programs similar to her hands-on teaching technique. 

Brenda, thank you sharing your students' achievement with us.

Thank you Margaret Meyncke for arranging this event.