West Tisbury Students Lead Campaign to Reduce Plastic Straw Use on Martha's Vineyard
1. Straw Free MV
West Tisbury School
Straw Free MV
A group of 7th graders from the West Tisbury School who
wanted to make a difference in their community.....
Straw Free MV
Andrea, Ava, Violet, Rose, Dash, Morgan, Chris and Hunter
How can we make a
difference?
There are a lot of restaurants on our island of Martha’s
Vineyard. #
If they all stopped serving plastic straws we can have a
positive impact on the environment and the Island.#
People (customers and workers) will be educated that plastic
straws are dangerous.#
People may change their habits.
2. The problem with plastic
It does not biodegrade, it photo-degrades into smaller and
smaller pieces, which get ingested by marine and land
animals, and into our food chain. #
If it’s recycled, it is only a very small percentage. #
Essentially every piece of plastic ever made is still in our
environment. (thelastplasticstraw.org) Athena Aicher from WHOI teaching us
about plastics in the Ocean!
Every day the USA uses 500,000,000 straws. That’s
enough to fill up 46,400 large school buses each year. #
Straws can end up in a sea of floating plastics swept up
into moving currents called gyres, also known as garbage
patches. #
44% of all seabirds, and 22% of all whales, porpoises and
dolphins have ingested plastic. #
Petroleum plastics are designed to last forever, which
means animals can’t digest them and they will never
decompose.#
50-80% of customers chose to not take a straw when
offered! (5gyres.org)
3. Steps:
Step 1: We identified a problem that we wanted to help
solve.#
We learned more about it:AthenaAicher from WHOI, 5
Gyres.org, etc. #
Step 2: We targeted 30 MV restaurants#
Step 3: We ordered sample paper straws fromAardvark.com#
Step 4: One of our teacher aides at WTS,Anita Smith,
drew a logo for us! Paper Straws from
Aardvark.com
Step 5:We wrote letters to all 30 restaurants explaining
our project and asking for their support (we included a
paper straw)#
In the letters we asked restaurants to #
Stop ordering plastic straws and switch to paper
straws OR#
Have customers ask for a straw instead of placing
straws automatically on the tableAND#
To display our sticker in a visible spot#
Step 6: We had the logo made into stickers and ordered 100#
Step 7: We made a facebook page!#
So far we have had 4 restaurants respond!
Straw Free MV writing letters
to MV restaurants
4. Restaurants
Edgartown#
Chesca’s#
Right Fork Diner!
Alchemy#
Atria!
Square Rigger#
Seafood Shanty#
Lure Grill#
Sharky’s#
The Wharf#
The Newes#
Oak Bluffs#
Linda Jeans#
Slice of Life#
Lookout Tavern#
MV Chowder#
Nancy’s#
Sweet Life#
Giordanos#
Ocean View#
Sharky’s#
!
Vineyard Haven#
Rocco’s Pizza#
Black Dog#
Art Cliff#
Scottish Bakehouse#
The Net Result!
Nats Nook#
!
!
!
!
Up-Island#
Aquinnah Shop#
Home Port#
The Galley#
State Rd.#
The Outermost
Restaurant#
Orange Peel
Bakery!
!
!
!
Red = joined!
Our logo by Anita Smith
Next Steps....
Most of our letters came back to us because we didn’t have
the correct mailing address.....so we will VISIT them in
person with our letter and a sticker!#
We hope to not only get all island restaurants to stop using
(or handing out) straws, but we hope to educate people
about the dangers of plastic straws in our environment.
This was posted to our FB page by Atria:
“Paper and bees wax straws arrived at Atria!"
Thanks for the inspiration.”