The Green News
April WF & R Lunch Results
Congratulations to the students of Mrs. Ishikawa, Mrs. Carey, Mrs. Seeple and Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Callahan, Mr. Orr, Mrs. Gradias and Mrs. Weill, they all surpassed 50% WF &R lunch/Pack-It-In-Pack-It-Out goal. They will be flying the 'Love the Earth' flag for the month of May. Thank you to all the students and parents for thinking green-living green and packing WF & R lunches.
Make Everyday a Waste Free and Reusable Lunch Day!
Why Go Green?
Gone are the days of using plastic bags as if they are grown on trees, eco-friendly, environmentally responsible ways of living are “now." As parents, and even for those of us who are not parents, it is our obligation to keep our planet as healthy as we can for future generations. We can all do our part by making simple changes that require very little effort.
The first thing we need to do is become educated about what plastic bags are doing to our planet. Here are two staggering facts and statistics:
- 500,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 (look at all those zeros!): The number of plastic bags used worldwide each year.
- Over 100,000 seabirds, dolphins, whales, and other sea animals are killed each year by plastic bag use. These animals often mistake plastic bags for food and die after ingesting them because the bags have obstructed their digestive systems. Or the sea animals get entangled in them and suffocate or starve to death as a result.
- 80% of all plastic bags are used in North America and Western Europe.
- 1000 years: Some scientists estimate that it can take up to 1000 years for one plastic bag to decompose. However, the estimated number of years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill is somewhat disputed. Because plastic bags have been around for roughly 50 years, there is no way to know exactly how long this process will take.
- 100,000,000,000 plastic bags are thrown away by Americans each year.
- 60,000: The number of plastic bags used in the U.S. every five seconds.
- Roughly 12 million barrels are oil is used annually to make the plastic bags that Americans consume.
- On average, there are four plastic bags used each day to make lunch for one child. This adds up to almost 1000 plastic bags used each year for one child’s lunch! For this one child, they will use 9000 plastic bags while they are in school from kindergarten through 8th grade!
