The plastic-and-wax disposable cups towered over them.
“I didn’t really know what to expect,” Megan Dewar said. “I was hoping that it would be less than this.”
“It’s definitely more than I thought we’d have,” Mathias Horne said.
For the past three days, Dewar, Horne and Payton Burgin have rummaged through mouldy sandwiches, lunch bags and banana peels to collect take-away cups out of the trash at Howe Sound Secondary School (HSSS). The Grade 11 students wanted to see how much garbage they amounted to, Burgin said, noting some of the waxed cups are not recyclable.
The 16-year-olds were inspired to action after watching The Clean Bin Project. The documentary features Vancouver residents Grant Baldwin and Jen Rustemeyer, who try to live waste-free for a year. While it would be impossible for the school to follow the couple’s lead, Dewar honed in on something achievable — eliminating disposable cups from the students’ waste stream.
The Howe Sound Secondary School Climate Action Network (CAN) has challenged classes to go a week without using disposable coffee, milk shake or soft drink cups. Throughout that time frame, the group will record the number of containers that do get thrown away. The classroom with the fewest disposable cups will win a prize.
The students are challenging the community to join their battle against disposal cups. The idea is to get people to think about their actions, HSSS teacher Kathy Cormack said, noting even the simple question at asked at a café, “Do you have your own mug?” brings awareness.
Maybe one day disposable cups will be viewed in the same manor as plastic bags, Dewar said, adding she would support an additional fee being charged for the cups. Many places give customers a discount if they use your own mug, Burgin added, noting Dewar takes her own cup, straw and cutlery set with her at all times.
The trio glued together the cups they salvaged from the trash. The giant stacks are on display in the school’s lobby. Students stop and check it out, Horne said. Dewar hopes the structure will highlight the issue.
“People don’t realize how much garbage [the cups] add,” she said. “They don’t understand what they are doing.”
