Tomorrow is Earth Day, and activists around the state plan to use the day to highlight environmental issues.
In Franconia, some elementary school students have already gotten started.
They've been using the whole month to draw attention to how much stuff we throw away. t.
NHPR Correspondent Rebecca Brown has the story.
RB 1: Students at Lafayette Regional School in Franconia are on Spring vacation this week.
But they didn't want to miss the chance to celebrate Earth Day.
So they decided to make April Earth Month.
And the main focus of their Earth Month celebrations has been is to cut down the amount of trash they generate in the cafeteria.
Sixth grade student council member Alexis Wessels reads a poster hanging right above the cafeteria garbage can.
GIRL 1: This is litterless lunch. Reverse the curse of the horrible waste disposal. Please recycle.
Litterless lunch is the idea of student council members working with parents and teachers.
In class and at lunch, teachers have been talking with kids about tossing out less food and using fewer throw-away containers.
The student council members have the job of measuring how much trash is created.
Lafayette Regional has 104 students in grades one through 6.
At the end of lunch for the primary grades last Friday, sixth grader Nathan Lax joined Alexis Wessels and other student council colleagues to get the results.
GIRL 2: (Nathan) We’re lifting up the trash bag which we took out of the trash can, and we’re sticking it on the scale, and we’ll tell how much it is. [a little bang here: AMPLIFY]..ten pounds . (Girl): So now we put it on the chart and we add up the whole week’s worth of the trash and count up the primary and the intermediate and see which one has the least amount of trash.
Sixth grader Julie Iman explains what happens next.
JULIE 1: WE do this for the whole week, and then we have spring break and when we come back we’ll do it for another week and compare the weights from both weeks and see if we reduce trash.
And says Iman, the hope is that Litterless Lunch will change the way students – and adults – think about what they consume. .
JULIE 2: I hope kids learn to not waste as much food and instead of buying little yogurt containers, buy a big one, and be not as wasteful. I usually go with my dad to the dump and we work on separating paper and aluminum and glass to recycle more, but I guess I never really thought about where the huge green trash bags and what they did with them until I found out how much trash we accumulate over just a week.
The school-wide effort has had an impact on Third grader Katherine Hessler
KATHERINE 1: I used to get Luncheables and stuff but they have so much containing with sauce for mini pizzas and I don’t get them anymore. I get apples for my lunch and things and stuff that doesn’t have a lot of packaging.
When they get back to school next week the Lafayette students are planning to start another week of Litterless Lunch.
According to Julie Iman, the experience so far has been an eye opener.
JULIE 3: Already we’re up to 26 pounds for each grade level, primary and intermediate, and we’re not done yet. That’s a lot of trash.
When the Lafayette students are back in school they'll also celebrate the end of Earth Month by planting trees and hosting a community clean up.
For NHPR News, I’m Rebecca Brown.
