“Why are people so lazy?” Shelton asked, leaning over to pick a piece of trash out of the grass that ran alongside the new bike path. “It really makes me so mad.”
Others agreed. “They could just leave it in their car or their pocket – or throw it in the trash!”
As they continued their litter clean-up, they began to notice more problems.
“There aren’t any trash cans anywhere near here,” Ella pointed out.
“And most of this trash is from Wal-Mart!” someone added.
Students pulled plastic bags, bottle caps, cans, Plexiglas, broken toys, fast food trays and cigarette butts out of the wetlands that line our school. They filled two bags with what they found.
And then they began discussing the solutions.
“I feel good about what we did today, but I feel bad about all this litter in the first place!” Bella said.
“Maybe we can do a presentation at Wal-Mart or something,” Carlo suggested.
“We should talk to someone about putting in trash cans along here,” Ella added.
“And we could put up posters reminding people to throw away their trash,” Kai said.
With that, we took an optimistic step toward positive change: throwing away what was collected and planning our impact on the local environment.
Inside, students worked on posters, read books and watched videos about better uses for our trash. Some focused on composting, reusable diapers, or how to sort your trash. They shared their art and insights with each other, and are looking forward to sharing more with those beyond our school community.