YOUTH ACTION
on PLASTIC POLLUTION

Videos of NYC youth taking action!
NYC Plastic Foam Ban ->
NYC Plastic Bag Fee/Ban Bill ->
Foam Trays Out of Schools ->

Microplastic Madness Trailer (with comments) from Cafeteria Culture on Vimeo.

Teachers, host a  screening -->
Free for all Title One Schools!
Subtitled versions are available!

Watch "Dear Humans" on YouTube; Watch on Vimeo -> (made by 4th grade students from PS15 Patrick F Daly, Brooklyn, NY)

Watch "Kids in Tokyo & NYC..." on Vimeo->

Watch "#SaveOurOcean - Your Litter is Killing Marine Life" on Vimeo -> 
​(edited by a 7th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

​Cafeteria Culture's youth programs provide students with opportunities for community science, leadership, storytelling.  and advocacy. We teach students to think critically about real world environmental problems and to instigate their own action and messaging for their communities.

Students debate the issues, ask questions, collect and analyze local data, study the life cycle of plastics, and tell their own powerful stories about local plastic pollution that threatens our oceans, marine wildlife,
and human health.
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Watch LITTER MONSTERS on Vimeo here ->  (​made by 5th grade students from PS34 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Manhattan, NY)

Watch THE FLAWS OF STRAWS on Vimeo here -> (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

Watch "East Flatbush Litter #SaveACritter" on Vimeo -> (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY))

Cafeteria Culture is engages students by
teaching 21st Century Learning skills,
including video production
​ and storytelling for change.

​(see our Community Arts+Media
​for Trash Free Waters program - >)
​

Watch "the Story of Alaina and Joe" on Vimeo ->  (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

Watch "Keep It Wavy, Keep It Clean" on Vimeo -> (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

, "I did look at the Cafeteria Culture videos. The cool thing about it is that the kids in the video look like the kids that we are bringing today. The faces are familiar. If they see kids like them doing something good, hopefully it gives them more of a push to come out and do the same good as the kids they see in the video.The videos ultimately made another connection between what we are doing in the class and what we are doing out here [North Channel Beach]."  Nneka Wallace, Science Teacher, Victory Collegiate High School, Brooklyn, NY, from interview at Jamaica Bay while conducting a beach litter survey with her students 

On rainy days, the increase of storm waster runnoff forces street litter in many of our NYC neighborhoods (and over 700 other US municipalities) to flow into our sewer systems, where it mxes with our sewage, and then flows drectly out to our local waterways and beyond.

These TRASH FREE WATERS videos have been cretaed by by 8th grade students from MS246 K Walt Whitman in East Flatbush, Brooklyn and PS/MS34 M 5th graders.

The curriculum is a part of Cafeteria Culture’s interdisciplinary environmental education,  YOUTH ARTS + MEDIA forTRASH FREE WATERS School Program (2016), generously funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2, Sustainable Materials Management Section, CASD.​

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Watch "A message from 8th grade filmmakers about marine pollution" 
​on Vimeo ->  (​co-created with 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

A Trash Free Waters (TFW) campaign,
"Pick Up Litter #SaveACritter"
​
These video shorts were co-created with 8th grade students from MS 246 Walt Whitman in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The curriculum is part of Cafeteria Culture's "Youth ARTS+MEDIA for Trash Free Waters" school program, generously funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2.

Learn more about our youth media and environmental education curriculum ->

Students from MS 246 Walt Whitman participating in a beach litter survey and clean up at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, the only US National Park with a subway running thru it!

Watch "The Dark Beauty of the Beads - #beadfree" on Vimeo -> ​ (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

Watch "The Journey of Plastic Litter" on Vimeo -> ​ (​made by 8th grade student from MS246 Walt Whitman, Brooklyn, NY)

See what PS34's 5th grade green leaders from Cafeteria Culture's ARTS+MEDIA for Climate Action program are doing to reduce NYC's plastic bag pollution! Students studied the details of NYC's single-use carryout bag bill, debated the bill, and took ACTION for a greener, cleaner NYC and plastic free oceans. Watch "5th Grade Change-makers Take Action..." on Vimeo ->

Rebeca, Tompkins Square Middle School student, CafCu ARTS+ACTION program alum (PS34m), speaking at City Hall!

See more here --> about youth-led action on NYC's bag bill and how CafCu students helped to get this landmark bill passed!

Shahzia, Rachel, Nerlande and Taina, 8th grade students from MS 246 Walt Whitman, at NY City Hall with Council Member Brad Lander, sharing personal view points on plastic litter issues. (2016)

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NEST+m third grade students learned all about how street litter can become dangerous marine pollution. The participated in Socratic discussions on the NYC polystyrene (Styrofoam) ban bill and the NYC single-use carry-out bag bill.

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Students went to City Hall and stood by City Council Members, speaking to the press about why the NYC bag fee bill should be passed.

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Make your own no-sew reusable bag
(and face mask)
from an old t-shirt 
 - 5 steps in 10 minutes!
Watch our short how to video ->
100 billion plastic bags are used annually in the US 
and only about 2% of them are recycled.  
Plastic bags pollute
from the start of production to end of life.

• In New York City and 700 other US cities, on rainy days or after snowstorms, large amounts of water can cause plastic street litter to wash into our sewer systems and out to our local waterways, eventually ending up in the ocean.
• Plastic bags, utensils, and straws are the most common debris (litter) items found during beach cleanups.
• 80% of plastics found in the oceans comes from land based sources. Only 20% originates from ocean based sources, such as fishing vessels.
• Many marine animals, birds, and fish consume plastic, either because they mistake it for food or ingest it accidentally. 
• Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species. The impacts include fatalities (death) as a result of ingestion (eating), starvation, suffocation, infection, drowning, and entanglement.
• Every minute, the equivalent of one truck load of garbage is dumped into the oceans worldwide. If no action is taken, this is expected to increase to two garbage track loads per minute by 2030 and four truck loads per minute by 2050.
• Plastic litter does not biodegrade (or break down into organic material). Instead, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, due to sunlight and physical factors (like waves), becoming microplastics. 

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 Wondering where all this plastic pollution comes from and where it goes?
(infographic from Eunomia, UK)

Youth Citizen Science 
NEST+M third grade students conduct
street litter survey of their school block!

As part of CafCu's Zero Waste Schools program, students from Mw. Wilen's 3rd grade class conducted a street litter survey of the sidewalks surrounding their school block (2016)

Street litter items tallied and collected by 3rd grade students at NEST+m. Thank you NEST+m and NYPL custodial staff who partnered with us on this effort.

Youth ARTS+MEDIA for Trash Free Waters
 MS 246 Walt Whitman 8th grade filmmakers are learning about plastic pollution, microbeads, impacts of plastic marine litter on wildlife, and how local street litter becomes marine pollution.
They are also learning video production skills and sharing their own POV on the issues! 

Learn more about CafCu's Youth Impact Media programs here ->

Professor Brett Branco from Brooklyn College, presenting on NYC'c marine litter issues to 8th grade students at MS 246 Walt Whitman (2016)

Israh, project assistant, teaching MS246 students editing skills.

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More video shorts:
watch, get inspired and take action! ->

See youth and community-led action on NYC's styrofoam ban here ->

Want to learn more about getting styrofoam out of your school?->

Giant Data Puppets - student messaging about styrofoam

As part of Cafcu's ARTS+ACTION program, PS 20 M second grade students learned about the connections between garbage and climate change then, constructed a giant polar bear puppet out 500 used foam trays, collected in their cafeteria.

Learn more about CafCu's ARTS+ACTION school program here ->

As part of cafCu's ARTS+ACTION program, 5th grade students at PS 221 K learned about styrofoam and marine pollution then, workshopped a play, built giant character puppets and performed their play for fellow students in the school playground.

See more CafCu puppets here ->