Plastic straws are a huge contributor to the 322 million tons of plastic produced each year, and plastic straws often end up in bodies of water where they pose a threat to many aquatic ecosystems.  For this project, students reached out to several local cafes and restaurants to see if they were interested in replacing their plastic straws with environmentally sustainable, paper straws. Green Cafe, DTUT, and Roma’s Pizza were happy to take the students’ paper straw donation and promote the straws in their restaurants.  Upon following up with each restaurant a couple of weeks after the donation, students found that the paper straws have been a huge success! The restaurants are considering permanently switching to paper straws. In addition to donating paper straws, students also created a series of pamphlets and flyers for the restaurants and the Dalton community to promote the use of paper over plastic.  Students hope to see this expanded to more restaurants within the area and are excited at how the small act of beginning a dialogue with members within our local community can affect change.

Students that implemented this project are:

Joshua Blackstone '22

Ciara Flaherty '22

Yasmine Gomel '22

Julia Isaacman '22

Natalie Martin '22

Liv McAllister-Nevins '22

Story and video provided by Science Teacher Dr. Alicia Reid