​Sharon (pictured above) displayed a jar of polystyrene microplastics, tiny, toxic bits of foam plastic that were collected at Valentino Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn.  

Sharon and PS 15 K fifth grade students studied plastic marine pollution for 2 years as part of Cafeteria Culture's Plastic Free Waters program. Lessons included: surveying of local street and beach litter; studying degradation of single-use plastics; life cycle analysis of various plastic types; designing creative messaging for community outreach to reduce plastic litter; and using student collected data to inform local policy.

Plastic foam is one of the most common types of plastic pollution (Ocean Conservancy, 2016) and 80% of marine litter originates on land. Plastic foam pollution easily breaks up into tiny, toxic pieces that are entering our local waterways at alarming rates.

Once in our waters, foam microplastics act like sponges, taking up chemical pollutants, such as pesticides, that make these tiny bits even more toxic. Then they can be eaten by marine organisms as small as microscopic plankton, the base of our food chain, or as large as giant filter feeding whales.
​
Plastic foam is made from styrene and benzene, both petroleum based chemicals. Styrene is a known animal carcinogen and found "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen" by the National Toxicology Program and "probably carcinogenic to humans" by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

In 2013, the NYC Council already voted “yes” to ban foam, but two industry-funded lawsuits have blocked this law from taking effect.

These young advocates made their voices heard for plastic-free oceans and a healthy future for marine wildlife and humans of all ages!

TAKE ACTION!
Call your NYC Council Member and urge her/him to vote "yes" for INTRO-135, the bill to ban plastic foam. Please be sure that they will not accept the phony, industry-backed foam recycling bill as a solution.
Learn more ->​

Featured in NewsDeeply,
today, June 8, 2018, for World Oceans Day,
PS 51 M students at the Youth Rally to ban foam, NY City Hall,
co-hosted by Council Member Brad Lander and Cafeteria Culture

Watch: "SORT2SAVE Cheer- zero waste cafeteria is almost here!" - watch on YouTube or on Vimeo here.

​We are thrilled to share our first international school project, captured in this inspiring documentary short. This is a perfect video to watch and share for World Oceans Day (June 8)!

Watch Tokyo & NYC Kids Share a Message About Marine Litter, directed and edited by Cafeteria Culture's award winning Media Director, Atsuko Quirk, and produced by Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

Fourth grade students from PS15 Patrick F. Daly Elementary School in Red Hook, Brooklyn and Hirai Elementary School in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo worked simultaneously on reducing local plastic litter that contributes to a global plastic marine pollution plight.

Watch this video and let these passionate 4th graders in Tokyo and NYC inspire you to take action to reduce single-use plastics! 

Then make your tax deductible donation to Cafeteria Culture! Help us to bring more cutting edge, culturally rich environmental education to underserved youth. 

While President Trump was making the decision to abandon the Paris climate agreement, signed by nearly 200 countries, our Tokyo-NYC project students from Red Hook, Brooklyn -- a community devastated by Superstorm Sandy -- were taking climate-smart action, then sharing local knowledge and efforts with project-partners living opposite sides of the globe! These students gained valuable insight by learning from their young Tokyo project partners, participating in an international exchange of ideas about local, upstream solutions for a complex and escalating global plight of plastic marine pollution.

Cafeteria Culture needs your support now more than ever. The last two years, a significant portion of our school programming was funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2. We are not counting on this funding for the 2017-18 school year.
We need your donation of any size to continue to bring innvovative and collaborative environmental and civic education to underserved NYC youth! ​

Watch Tokyo & NYC Kids Share a Message About Marine Litter

• On YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ta70uqmiKDc
• On Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/219166104
• Or just watch the trailer: https://youtu.be/_39ovv-y2fc

Thank you for giving the gift of innovative environmental education to New York City's underserved youth! 
And thank you for watching and sharing!
#SaveOurOcean #AAOPlasticFree

Please give the gift of creative environmental education to more underserved New York City youth! Your year-end donation is a critical for us to continue innovating, teaching, and sharing our creative environmental STEM curriculum.

LITTER MONSTERS are everywhere, but you can take immediate action to keep plastic street litter out of our oceans and out of marine wildlife. Refuse single-use plastics by bringing your own cup, bag, straw and containers for to-go food! Changing your behavior is not so hard when you can grasp the consequebces of each peice of plastic packaging you use every day, even when you think you are disposing of it properly.

Cafeteria Culture co-created LITTER MONSTERS, a stop motion animation/live action hyrbid documentary video, with PS/MS 34M 5th graders a part of our YOUTH MEDIA forTRASH FREE WATERS program.* Students were alarmed to learn about our marine litter plight. They scripted this story from thier unique urban youth POV to show their community and the world how seemingly harmless plastic street litter gets into our waterways, threatens our oceans, harms marine wildlife and returns to us in our seafood dinner. 

Did you know, when it rains in New York City and over 700 other US municipalities, large amounts of water can cause combined sewer systems to overflow? This allows street litter and raw sewage to flow directly out to our local waterways, making its way to the ocean and eventually to the bellies of marine wildlife. Get inspired to take action to reduce your to-go plastic use.

Together with our students, we are testing out and sharing youth-designed, community-based solutions to reduce local polluting plastic litter that becomes a toxic global threat to our oceans and wildflife.

* THANK YOU to all of our individual donors and funders who made our Youth ARTS+Media for TRASH FREE WATERS School Program 2015-16 and this video possible:

• The US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, Sustainable Materials Management, CASD
• NYC Councilwoman Rosie Mendez
• UL Innovative Education Award 2015
• Fund for the City of New York

Students from Cafeteria Culture's Youth Media for Trash Free Waters Program at MS246 Walt Whitman spoke knowledgeably and passionately at a Press Conference on Flatbush Ave. about plastic street litter. Students explained to community leaders and government officials how this local problem is negatively impacting the health of our oceans, marine wildlife and our seafood chain, then asked for more curbside recycling bins for their neighborhood.

Watch their amazing youth POV #trashfreewaters videos here! Get inspired and take action!
Thank you, US Environmental Protection Agency, Region 2, for generously funding the Youth Media for Trash Free Waters Program at MS246.

The SORT2SAVE KIT - Cafeteria Ranger Program is hands-on service learning and student leadership in the cafeteria. Students oversee all recycling and sorting on a rotating schedule. All students can participate.
Make your school's zero waste intiative fun - in 8 steps! 

The SORT2SAVE KIT  includes "edu-taing" videos (on YouTube, on Vimeo, or on our S2s video page here->), kid friendly signs, Ranger badges, introduction letter/email templates for teachers and parents, and so much more!