Tiogue hopes to see Styrofoam 'dunked'

04/30/2007

Amanda K. Lowe , Daily Times

COVENTRY - In their own small way, students at Tiogue Elementary School are working to save the world.

In honor of Earth Day, students in the first grade at Tiogue spent the month of April studying ways to help the environment.

"We spent time learning about helping the Earth," said first-grader Brianna Sousa. "We read a lot of books about the environment and helping the Earth and recycling."

As part of this lesson, students learned that Styrofoam does not disintegrate. This got Susan Hackett's class talking about Dunkin' Donuts.

"I see people with Styrofoam Dunkin' Donuts cups everyday," said first-grader Zachary Plante. "These cups are going to fill the dumps and eventually there won't be any room for more trash."

Together, the students of Hackett's fourth-grade class decided they would write a letter to Dunkin' Donuts, asking the company to change the cups it uses.

"I've been discussing this so much with the kids that I am all paranoid," Hackett said. "I just keep thinking of all the people who go to Dunkin' Donuts each day and all those Styrofoam cups piling up the in the landfills. I imagine someday us all living in garbage because eventually there will be no place left for the garbage to go."

Several students came up with different ideas for solving the problem.

"Every time we go into Dunkin' Donuts, we can tell them to change to paper or plastic cups instead of Styrofoam," Zachary said. "We will tell them that all their competitors use other cups and they are harming the environment by using Styrofoam because it never decomposes."

"The whole entire class can write a letter, and they will be like, 'Wow, a lot of people want us to change,'" said Elizabeth Kenney. "They need to know that people want them to change what they are doing."

Hackett said that many of Dunkin' Donut's competitors - like Tim Hortons and Honey Dew Donuts - use plastic or paper cups. Although plastic does not decompose, it can be recycled. Styrofoam is not recycled because it is cheaper to make new Styrofoam than it is to recycle it, Hackett said.

"We love Dunkin' Donuts and we don't want them to go away," Hackett said. "We just want them to think about changing."

Hackett said the students will work together on a letter in the coming months. In the meantime, the students have taken steps to help the environment on their own.

All 71 first-grade students at Tiogue Elementary School did a project that required them to make lunch boxes from all-recycled materials.

"The assignment was to make a lunch box that would help to keep the world clean," said first-grader Molly Bronn. "We could use anything that was recyclable to make the lunch box."

Each student was given the same assignment. There were several requirements for the lunch box - it had to have a handle, be strong enough to hold a student's lunch and snack, and be made of all recycled materials with the exception of tape and glue, Hackett said.

Each student came up with his or her own creative ideas. The lunch boxes were made out of shoe boxes, Happy Meal boxes, tissue boxes, cereal boxes, milk bottles, soda bottles and bleach bottles, among many other recyclable items.

"After we made the lunch boxes we decorated them by coloring or painting or gluing other recyclable materials on to the lunch box," said student Darrian Phillips. "We then wrote a paper about what we did first, second, and third to put the lunch box together. It was a fun project."

Hackett said that throughout the month, the students learned a lot about the environment, and ways to be environmentally safe.

"It is important to start teaching kids at a young age," Hackett said. "Overfilled landfills are going to be a major problem in the future and we need to educate children about recycling and avoiding materials that can not be recycled. Hopefully everything we teach children now will pay off and save the world for future generations."