Support our initiative, H2Oak, Bring It, to help reduce Klein Oak’s environmental footprint! Every time we discard a plastic water bottle, we are harming the environment by sending that plastic into a landfill, where it may take more than 1,000 years to decompose. In an attempt to stop using disposable plastic water bottles at Klein Oak, we prepared a grant application to bring Elkay rapid fill bottle stations to our campus. To support our grant application by showing the enthusiasm of Klein Oak’s student body, we sold water bottles with the H2Oak, Bring It logo on them. These water bottles were a huge success and we thank everyone for their support!
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In 2016 alone, China imported 10,225 million metric tons, two thirds of the worlds plastic waste. Because China took in so much plastic, there wasn’t as much of a demand in the local Houston area. In fact, there is not a single recycling center in the city of Houston that recycles plastics, because there is no post consumer market for recycled plastics in the area. In December of 2017 China placed a ban on all imported plastics. Because of this, millions of metric tons of plastics have been displaced with nowhere to go except landfills. Water bottles, grocery bags, and other everyday items are being thrown into landfills instead of being recycled and sold to private sector companies that later reuse the recycled plastic.
A big downside of throwing plastic water bottles away is that they significantly harm the waterways and oceans. Due to the amount of waste thrown away, landfills continue to get filled up and the excess waste unfortunately gets dumped into the oceans. Currently, there are around 45,000 pieces of plastic in each square mile of the ocean, which comes to a total of 165 million tons of plastic. To make matters worse, about 9 million additional tons of plastic enter the oceans every year. An astounding study has predicted that by the year 2050, oceans will contain more plastic waste than fish! By using reusable water bottles, we can significantly decrease the amount of damage done to marine life.
H2Oak was just covered by the Panther Press! A big thank you to our very own Klein Oak DECA member, Catherine Leone, for such an amazing article.
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