Punahou Project Citizen: Bags Of Plastic Ain’t Fantastic
By Lauren and Taylor
This year our class was able to take part in Project Citizen, a challenge very different from our usual assignments. We weren’t just dealing with something involving our class, but with something that could change our local communities and possibly impact our state, nation and world.
We first spent a few days researching various problems we saw in our community and presenting our topics to each other. We then voted and narrowed the topics down to the one we felt most strongly about, which was plastic bags. For us plastic bags are a problem we encounter locally almost every day. To many around the world, Hawai鈥榠 seems like the perfect paradise, but plastic bags are hurting our fragile island environment. The unsustainable bags are given by various supermarkets, stores, and restaurants in excess, and many end up polluting and destroying our surroundings.
One of the main reasons why plastic bags are so detrimental to our ‘aina is that they are photodegradable and never completely decompose鈥攖he sun just breaks them down into smaller pieces and their mass stays the same. Plastic bags and their component pieces are filling our landfills and finding their way into our ocean. In the ocean, marine life such as our dolphin and native honu mistake plastic bags for food or toys and end up eating the toxic material and dying. The chemicals from the bags, like PCB, can even find their way into our food. The production of plastic bags uses much of our earth’s natural resources and produces pollution. For example, oil is used to make and distribute plastic bags, so by reducing our state’s use of them, we could save more than 4 million gallons of oil per year.
Currently, the Hawai鈥榠 state government has no public policy specifically against plastic bags; just normal littering laws. We must change that now, in order to save our islands from plastic pollution.
Our class considered a few alternative policies to our main solution, one of which was a plastic bag Hi-5, where customers would be charged an extra five cents for each plastic bag they receive. In order to get the five cents back, they would need to take the bags to a recycling center. After the bags were collected, they would be melted down and re-made into plastic bags or other materials. Another alternative we came up with was charging a small fee for each plastic bag, similar to China’s policy, which could help reduce the number of plastic bags used and boost our economy. We also came up with an alternative policy of requiring the distribution of only biodegradable bags in Hawaii.
We ultimately decided to propose as our class policy a statewide plastic bag ban, similar to the ones currently in place on the islands of Maui and Kauai. Our class felt that by banning the distribution of plastic bags, we could effectively and aggressively put a stop to the high consumption rates in our state, and the ban would eventually result in a healthier ocean and cleaner air quality. A statewide ban could greatly reduce the amount of plastic going into our landfills, which would help us manage the amount of trash filling our finite island space.
We put together a presentation on our research and proposal, and invited members of the State House and Senate to hear our ideas. Every student also wrote a letter to respective district senators and representatives to support SB 1059, a statewide plastic bag ban. We contacted Kohala Councilman Pete Hoffmann and North Kona Councilman Angel Pilago, who both supported SB 1059. Sadly, SB 1059 died because the House Environment Committee didn’t schedule it for a hearing.
There are many organizations, groups, and individuals who support our proposed policy and action plan. Some of these groups are the Surfrider Foundation, Kanu Hawai鈥榠, and the Conservation Council for Hawai鈥榠, which all supported SB 1059. Also, individuals such as Scott Higgins of the Hawai鈥榠 Natural Energy Institute; Rachel Harvey of Plastic Free Kailua; and Joy Leilei Shih, a biogeochemist graduate student researcher; supported SB 1059. Our class worked to gain the support of other organizations, groups and individuals.
We created and manned a booth at Punahou School’s 2011 Sustainability Fair, where we gave out reused plastic bag jewelry and raised awareness about the problem of plastic bags and the need for a statewide ban. At the booth, we collected petition signatures for a plastic bag ban to combine with a petition from the Surfrider Foundation.
In total, our whole class learned how to work as a team towards one common goal. Our final Project Citizen presentation was a reflection of everyone’s talents, hard work and care for our community. Hopefully our strong support for a statewide plastic bag ban will initiate a new bill to be introduced in the 2012 legislative session.
Reflections on Project Citizen
Project Citizen has inspired me to get involved in government. I used to think that the government was a big industrial company who was too busy to talk to. But by calling and meeting with our district representatives and agencies, I learned that there are many parts of the government that need citizen involvement in order to keep functioning honestly. The most important idea I learned was that citizens can make a difference in government if they want to but that you have to work like crazy to do so. 鈥擟补谤辞濒测苍
Creating a public policy requires a lot of research on the problem, its effect on our community, and how it is and could be handled. It also requires collaboration with others for different perspectives and ideas on dealing with the issue. You also must think through the various effects your policy would have and who would support and oppose it. However, I also learned that we, as citizens, can really be involved in our government and suggest changes in our community. 鈥擫颈产产测
I learned that public policies are really hard to make, and to have them passed into law, is even harder. The policy would have to pass through all of government, and trust me it is hard. SB1059, which was a bill on banning plastic bags, died because the house environment committee forgot to schedule it for a hearing. Seriously, if bills die because people forget to schedule them, then imagine how many policies are submitted and die. That must be a LOT of policies. 鈥拟颈肠丑补别濒
Project Citizen has been a long, hard process. The problem we chose was plastic bags because it is harming our marine life and environment. We also chose this because we are in the middle of the ocean and, since the bags fly into the ocean, we are directly affected by it. Coming up with ideas to solve this problem was not easy. What I learned about public policies from this experience was that it takes a ton of planning and hard work to figure out ways to solve a community problem. My classmates learned more about plastic bags and about how serious a problem it really is. Overall, Project Citizen was a unique experience that taught us in ways that we had to teach ourselves and it put us in the position of social activists, not just middle school students. 鈥擭辞别
About the Authors: The class is an eighth-grade class of Leah Anderson, social studies teacher and coordinator for the local chapter of Project Citizen.
, a national curricular program from the , is a curricular program for middle, secondary, and post-secondary students, youth organizations, and adult groups that promotes competent and responsible participation in local and state government. The program helps participants learn how to monitor and influence public policy. In the process, they develop support for democratic values and principles, tolerance, and feelings of political efficacy.
The Project Citizen program is administered with the assistance of a national network of state and congressional district coordinators in every state and is conducted with the assistance of the National Conference of State Legislatures. It is funded by the U.S. Department of Education and by act of Congress. Additional funding at the state level is also provided by an increasing number of state legislatures.
