日本語

Hi, my name is Erika. I am 9 years old and a 3rd grade elementary school student from Nerima Ward in Tokyo. My goal is to get rid of plastic straws at my school.

At my school, we use plastic straws to drink milk at lunch every day. My classmates and I want to change this, because we want to reduce plastic waste.
Since 1997, it is known that there is a lot of plastic waste in the oceans. We have known this fact for 25 years, and nothing has happened to change it. We still use single-use plastic every day. A part of this plastic might get recycled, but part of it is simply thrown away. Some of this plastic gets washed into the ocean. There, sea animals mistake it for food, try to eat it and die. If we continue like this, then 30 years from now, there will more plastic than fish in the oceans.１)

We need to change! 

In class, we thought about other ways of drinking our milk. As a result, all third-year students brought a cup to school for three weeks, to use instead of the plastic straws. We managed to not use 100 plastic straws per day. That makes 1,500 plastic straws in three weeks! We were able to reduce a lot of plastic waste!

In Nerima Ward, there are some schools who do not use plastic straws for the milk. That is what it should be like at all schools!
If you agree with our goal to get rid of plastic straws at elementary schools in Nerima Ward, then please sign and/or share this petition!

Message from Erika’s mother
Through children’s books we have at home Erika became interested in the topic of plastic pollution. During a class meeting, she raised the issue of plastic straws that they use every day, and the whole class discussed what they could do. With the wonderful support of her homeroom teacher, among several ideas that came out of the discussion, the one that the school was able to implement was the "My Cup Week" initiative, which is, however, limited to a certain period of time, so the impact is restricted.

As long as milk vendors that use plastic straws are employed by local governments, it is impossible to completely eliminate the use of plastic straws at schools. In order to make the reduction of plastic waste sustainable, we need the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Nerima Ward to take action.

Some municipalities in Tokyo are already buying milk only from vendors who are offering straw-less solutions.2) We hope to achieve that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Nerima Ward will follow suit as a result of this online petition.

Plastic pollution is a problem of such a large scale that it seems difficult to make a difference as an individual. While larger systemic changes are necessary, the third-grade students at my daughter’s elementary school show us, that even a small change can make a difference – if taken as a group. As members of a democratic society, these children courageously raised their voices. We adults have a responsibility to respond to their sincere thoughts and take action to realize a sustainable society.

We sincerely hope that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Nerima Ward will listen to the voices of these children and take action to protect the global environment and the future of our children.

References (sorry - only in Japanese)

１) 朝日新聞社　SDGsで2030変える（2021年5月12日）「海のプラスチックごみ、2050年までに世界中の魚の重量を超える恐れも」　

2) 福生市「学校給食用牛乳のストローレス化について（令和4年度開始」