Students from Cafeteria Culture’s COMMUNITY ARTS+MEDIA FOR TRASH FREE WATERS program are taking the lead in their Red Hook, Brooklyn neighborhood to reduce single-use plastic litter at the source! They are collecting both litter and litter data, then using their data to educate neighbors and to inform government and policy makers.
PS15 Patrick F Daly School students are learning critical skills needed to advocate for informed, data-driven policy.
By identifying the amounts and types of litter collected in their school neighborhood, as well as at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (Gateway National Park), these young citizen scientists are contributing to citywide scientific research. They compare their 2 sets of litter data to make the connection between or local street litter and deadly plastic marine litter.
Plastic marine litter is a local and global plight, adding to a multitude of Climate Stressors that threaten marine wildlife, the health of our oceans and public health - via microplastics, tiny bits of plastics that entering our food web at alarming rates.
EIGHT MILLION TONS OF PLASTICS LEAK INTO THE OCEAN ANNUALLY, which is equivalent to one truckload of trash being dumped in our oceans per minute. Recent studies estimate that by the year 2050 there will be more plastic—by weight—than fish in the ocean.
Plastic marine pollution is not just a problem in some remote Pacific island. New York City generates endless amounts of single-use plastic litter. On rainy days, litter flows from neighborhood streets, though our sewers, and out to our rivers bays and oceans.
#RefusePlastic and #SaveACritter
Watch this video. Find out what makes Cafeteria Culture's environmental education programs truly unique. Then give the gift of creative environmental education to more underserved New York City youth!
Make your donation here: cafeteriaculture.org/donate.html
Cafeteria Culture's Community Arts+Media for Trash Free Waters program has been generously funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2, New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission, Fund for the City of New York, and individual donors like you!
Our project partners are: NYC Department of Education Schools
- PS/MS 34 Franklin D Roosevelt - Alphabet City, Manhattan
- PS 15 The Patrick F. Daly Magnet School of the Arts, Red Hook, Brooklyn
- MS 246 Walt Whitman, East Flatbush, Brooklyn
and the 3 respective neighboring communities.
- New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Education
- Brooklyn College, Earth and Environmental Sciences Brooklyn and CUNY Graduate Center
Special thanks to:
- Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Gateway National Park recreation Area
- NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA)
