The 2019 middle school Green Team – sixth graders Summer Adler, Natalie Liu, Genieve Malinen and Claire Zhao – has been hard at work this year advocating for the end of single-use plastics and an increase in recycling of all plastic waste. Because much of our plastic waste ends up in the ocean, the team is concerned with the effects on marine life, from sea birds filling their stomachs – and those of their babies – with indigestible plastic and dying of malnutrition, to fish who mistake tiny bits of colored microplastics as their natural food source, to sea turtles and whales becoming entangled in plastic waste. The team has worked hard to learn about and share with their friends the effects of human activity on the planet’s ecosystems.

In addition to creating inspirational posters and displaying them at the middle school campus, the team participated in the nationwide Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, collecting and recycling more than 300 pounds of plastic film during the five-month challenge. The Green Team managed to increase the middle school community’s recycling of a material difficult to process by waste haulers and recyclers, and effectively communicated the importance of recycling to their fellow students, families, faculty and staff – who all participated in the team’s plastic film collection.

With Earth Day in mind, the Green Team learned more about Earth’s marine environments and the important role that healthy coral plays in maintaining these ecosystems. With a healthy coral reef being the backbone of a thriving ocean, they further discovered the surprising impact that sunscreen has had on the planet’s oceans and that the toxic ingredients oxybenzone and octinoxate have adversely affected coral reefs by poisoning fish, sea urchins, shrimp and baby corals. Widespread coral distress and reef bleaching has been a significant global consequence.

The team shared this information about sunscreen and its effects at the 2019 Earth Day celebration on April 19. The entire student body also participated in an extended advisory meeting that focused on protecting coral reefs globally. They took part in a letter writing campaign that petitioned the FDA to ban oxybenzone and octinoxate in sunscreens nationwide. They further learned that switching to reef-safe sunscreen has a huge impact on coral reef health and were given free reef-safe clear zinc sunscreen sticks at the Green Team’s Earth Day booth, generously donated by Babo Botanicals.

The inspirational story behind Babo Botanicals’ founder is evidenced by her passion for healthy marine ecosystems, beekeeping, sustainable agriculture, nutrition and teaching. A graduate of Harvard, Kate Solomon developed Babo Botanicals with children and families in mind. We are very grateful for the company’s sunscreen donation and the opportunity has provided to share the importance of using reef-safe sunscreens with students and families. 

Green Team members have shown their passion for a healthy planet and truly gotten their hands dirty by learning about and maintaining a compost bin on campus, growing vegetables from seeds and replanting the beautiful Harker “H” garden by the school entrance. Maintaining both the flower garden and vegetable patch will be the team’s focus for the remainder of the school year, while continuing to campaign against single-use plastics.