What can we do as a community to help our planet? Episcopal strives to be the best in every aspect, so why are we being quiet on the biggest issue right now? What we can do as a community is completely eliminate plastic. 

Plastic is made from petroleum. Petroleum is a fossil fuel, and fossil fuels increase the amounts of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. With this inflation of carbon dioxide, temperatures increase to an unnatural state and cause increased extinction rates, more acidic oceans and higher sea levels. 

If ESJ replaced all plastic plates, bowls, cutlery and cups from the Buck Center, then we would be putting a big dent in this positive movement. Around 1,000 people eat at the Buck every day, which is roughly around 4,000 pieces of plastic a day being thrown into landfills just from our community. 

A solution to this problem, which in turn could possibly help the school save money in the future, would be to switch to reusable plates, bowls, cutlery and cups. This not only will help our earth, but it will make kids more responsible for putting away their dishes as they would at home. If we had a communal rotating dishwasher that many colleges have, it would be easy to make this idea possible. Yes, it might be more work for the students, faculty and kitchen staff, but it would be a great thing to help our future and the earth we live on.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Facts courtesy of weforum.org