The Moravian Academy Green Team would like to share with the students and faculty of the Upper School that starting March 15, there will be a policy change transitioning the Merle-Smith Campus to a single-use, plastic-bottle FREE zone.

By the end of spring break, we would like to see an end to single-use plastic bottle usage at the Upper School. Dining services will no longer provide single-use water bottles with lunches, though there will temporarily be paper cups in the Walter main office for anyone who forgets a water bottle. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to bring their own reusable bottles, cups, jars or mugs to school everyday, and will rely on the many water bottle filling stations located around the campus. There are two in Walter Hall, one on the second floor of Snyder, one in the Science labs, one in Couch, and two in the AWC.

Making the Case for a Ban on Single-Use Plastic Bottles

As shown by this video, we humans use obscene amounts of plastic bottles, and barely recycle any of it. Like we just saw, over the last 70 years only 1.2% of the 8.3 billion tons of plastic bottles produced have been put in recycling bins. We bury and incinerate 3.5 times as much plastic as we even attempt to recycle. Furthermore, the recycling industry often fails to process that 1.2% altogether.

Continuing to generate the massive quantities of plastic waste and single-use bottles we do only accelerates the damage we do to oceans, marine life, the atmosphere, Earth’s ecology, and human civilization. The United States, specifically, is responsible for more municipal solid waste, or trash, per capita, than any other country on Earth. We as Americans represent only 4% of the world’s population yet generate 12% of the world’s municipal solid waste. We are each responsible for, on average, 234 pounds of plastic waste annually. This number results from the plastic used behind the scenes to sustain our consumerist lifestyles as well as every single plastic bag, piece of packaging, microplastic-laced product, and single-use bottle we throw away. Reducing our use of plastic bottles is the easiest, most impactful change we can make to our individual lives to lessen our contribution to the global crisis.  

Please join the Green Team in encouraging and reminding each other to use less plastic, create less trash, and contribute to a healthier planet.