The earth is continuously degrading as every day passes. We, Emily Dillon and Emily Rudge, feel we need to make a change. We would like to ban plastic cutlery from LBPSB cafeterias. By distributing plastic cutlery to students everyday, Lester B. Pearson school cafeterias are contributing to the climate crisis, ocean and plastic pollution, as well as the wildlife shortage. 

 Did you know that plastic cutlery is one of the worst single use plastics in the world? "Each year, 40,000,000,000 plastic forks, spoons, and knives are used and thrown out".  That is a lot of plastic that ends up going into our oceans and near animal habitats. This issue mainly affects the environment. Plastic cutlery cannot be recycled, and therefore most of it is thrown out. The cutlery usually ends up in forests and bodies of water, where animals mistake it for food. Once inside the animal, the plastic can cause internal injuries and slowly poison them. This causes over 100,000 marine animals and 1 million seabirds to die yearly. Also, the plastic cutlery we are all used to using, takes over 200 years to decompose, and this is really only possible under strong sunlight. In addition, there is a lot of carbon being emitted in the production of the plastic cutlery. With all of this being said, if you think about it, the entire world is involved, considering that plastic cutlery is contributing to global warming and climate change. 

Me and Emily are suggesting that LBPSB school cafeterias stop using and distributing plastic cutlery. There are a number of compostable, reusable and efficient solutions to this problem such as:

• Bamboo cutlery that grows much faster than trees
• Reusing metal cutlery 
• Ecovita compostable utensils
• Simply bringing your own utensils

Emily and I attend a Lester B. Pearson School Board school, and in our cafeteria, they give out plastic cutlery. We felt we needed to make a change, even if it is a small one. If we can get this done, we will be helping the entire planet in the process. Not to mention it will be teaching students about the importance of our environment. Young people are the future, and we will be the ones living in this world when it is falling apart. We only get one planet, therefore we must preserve it.

We hope you will consider signing this petition and doing your part!                 #SavingTheWorldOneSpoonAtATime

Sources:

https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/environmental-impact-plastic-cutlery-and-solutions.php#:~:text=Plastic%20cutlery%20has%20a%20lot,and%20carbon%20to%20the%20atmosphere​ 

https://www.ecovita.co/​ 

https://habitsofwaste.org/call-to-action/plastic-straws-cutlery/#:~:text=The%20average%20person%20uses,and%20thrown%20away%20each%20year​ 

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/the-8-worst-plastics-for-the-environment/​ 

https://outlery.com/blogs/blog/plastic-cutlery-is-killing-our-water-animals-it-must-stop