Vision

Our vision was to spread information about biodegradable dinnerware. We wanted to educate people about the dangers of single-use plastic in the hopes that people will stop using and buying it. We planned to educate people on how using plastic affects life on Earth and to inform people about the dangers of microplastics in our watersheds. We wanted our community to know that alternatives such as edible biodegradable cutlery are better for the environment.

Action

We created a PowerPoint presentation about edible cutlery because we researched a company in Poland called Biotrem. We were excited to learn that they had a distributor in our Maritime Province of Prince Edward Island. We had a Zoom meeting with the person in charge of the Distribution Center- Mark Cor-Litt. The interview with him was educational and informative. Following the Teams meeting, we were prepared to inform our classmates. We started with a Teams presentation to a neighbouring elementary class of grade five students. We felt that by starting at this age, they could start making conscious decisions about the prevention of using plastic. We also presented them to middle school classes in our school. We made posters with a QR code that linked to a survey. The survey helped to inform us about people’s attitudes about using single-use plastic. The Distributor from Biotrem sent us a pack of biodegradable, edible dinnerware. We gave our classmates a piece to try.

Reflection & Celebration

We recognize that biodegradable cutlery comes at a higher price for families, and may be too costly to purchase. However, we feel over time that there will be more of a demand and more companies in Canada will start making cutlery that is edible. However, as a team of students, we are committed to avoiding single-use plastics. We really enjoyed presenting to other classes, and the feedback was very positive. We made a Kahoot game, and the students learned a lot about microplastics. A lot of them did not know about the problem, and they were very keen. On June 1st 2023, our school is having an open house, and we plan to have our information available to the public to see. We will have our QR codes available for more to take the survey. We plan to have a celebration with our other grade eight classes to invite them to hear our message. We will continue to educate and inform throughout the rest of the school year.