Imagine a sea turtle, swimming in the deep ocean blue. On his swim, he gets rather hungry and mistakes a plastic straw as a sea worm or jellyfish. By eating this one plastic straw, not only does it affect the turtle, but it also affects coral reefs, the transportation of nutrients, the balance of the food web and stabilizing the shorelines.
With this one plastic straw, the entire ecosystem is under attack; Youth Eco Impact is here to fix this problem, one piece of plastic at a time.
Youth Eco Impact is a non-profit organization created by Lillian Rawlin, Carina Kosla, and Diya Anand who are all sophomores at Brecksville Broadview Heights High School. Kosla says the non-profit organization was created to “engage young people in environmental issues, because “we make up the future generation.” This non-profit recently became a club at BBHHS and it already has over 40 members.
Rawlin says that they are about to enter their fundraising period. “It [the fundraising] will include all types of events, like a car wash. Once we raise enough money, we plan on acting and reaching out to recycling companies to hopefully get them to come out to collect trash. Hopefully once we make a bigger name for ourselves, we can reach out to other schools and spread awareness,” says Rawlin.
According to the article, ‘Recycling in the U.S. is broken. How do we fix it?’ by Columbia University, it states, “Many items that are collected, such as plastic straws and bags, eating utensils, yogurt and takeout containers often cannot be recycled. They usually end up being incinerated, deposited in landfills or washed into the ocean. While incineration is sometimes used to produce energy, waste-to-energy plants have been associated with toxic emissions in the past.”
Brady Bourquin, environmental science teacher at BBHHS, says, “Finding ways to help people see the value in recycling and making it as easy as possible for participation is key. If it is hard to recycle, costs extra money, the materials don’t seem to be used for what people think they are, and so on, people are not going to be willing to participate,” says Bourquin.
“This school year, we really hope we can get more students connected with the club. We would like for a lot of people to join and we want everyone in all grades, in which they could attain service hour opportunities that they need,” says Rawlin.
If you are interested in getting community service hours and caring for the environment, please reach out to Lillian Rawlin at [email protected] or reach out to Carina Kosla at [email protected]. You can also follow their Instagram page @youthecoimpact or join the group on Band.
