FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 1, 2006
Mt. Pleasant school wins DHEC’s monthly Champions of the Environment award
COLUMBIA – Trident Academy has been named a Champion of the Environment for their efforts to reduce plastic bag pollution in Mt. Pleasant, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control announced today.
“The goal of the ‘Bag O’ Bags’ project is to promote the reuse and recycling of plastic grocery bags,” said Katie Ryan, a science teacher at Trident. “When my students learned about the problems associated with plastic bags – persistence in the environment, blocked storm drains and the threat to wildlife from ingestion and entanglement – they wanted to do something and use their influence to educate their community.”
Art teacher Paula Urbano has helped Ryan’s fourth and fifth grade students design and sew cloth bags to hold plastic bags. A brochure about plastic bag recycling created by eighth grade students is placed inside each cloth bag.
The cloth bags have been shared with the school’s staff and student’s families. The students plan to make more bags to give out to interested community members.
“What I like about this project is the student’s plan to take it into the community,” Ryan said. “The coast is an important yet sensitive resource and these students are doing something about coastal litter and teaching others about it too.”
Champions of the Environment is made possible through the support of International Paper, Eastman Chemical Company, WIS-TV and DHEC. The program is in its 14th year of promoting environmental education by rewarding students and teachers for their efforts to improve and protect South Carolina’s environment.
In addition to a $500 cash prize, winners receive Champions promotional items and their project is featured in a commercial on WIS-TV in Columbia.
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For more information:
Lynne LaSalle – (803) 898-4394
E-mail – lasallli@dhec.sc.gov
or
Adam Myrick – (803) 898-3884
E-mail – myrickar@dhec.sc.gov
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