What It Is
Helping Highland is a conservation project that targeted plastic water bottle use at Highland Elementary, a Title I, ethnically diverse school in Lake Worth, Florida. Because these kids are at an impressionable age, they are more likely to adopt lifelong habits if influenced early. That’s why it became essential to teach these students now about the misuse and overuse of plastic, especially SUPs (single-use plastics), to change their habits, help them influence their parents, peers, and other friends, and positively affect the environment for years to come.
The Problem
After a survey, it became clear that Highland Elementary was going through six plastic water bottles per classroom per day--that's 80,000 each year.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for every ounce of plastic produced, an ounce of carbon is released into the atmosphere. A Stanford University study, however, reviewed additional sources and found that the emission rate was closer to five ounces of carbon for every ounce of plastic produced.
National Geographic estimates that only 9% of plastic is recycled properly, adding that “plastic takes more than 400 years to degrade, so most of it still exists in some form.” The magazine goes on to explain that 79% of all this plastic ends up in landfills or “sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.”
NASA’s Earth Observatory summarizes the effects of carbon on the environment this way: “Since 1750, the pH of the ocean’s surface has dropped by 0.1, a 30 percent change in the acidity,” which threatens the health and viability for marine life.
The Guardian estimates that “a million plastic bottles are bought around the world every minute and that number will jump another 20% by 2021.”
One Green Planet explains how a chemical used in processing the bottles, Bisphenol A (BPA), has been linked to “cancer, neurological difficulties, early puberty in girls, reduced fertility in women” and many other medical conditions.
The Solution
To provide students with a sustainable alternative method to plastic bottle use while actively engaging them in the reduction of plastic use, this project decided to implement Elkay bottle refill stations.
About the stations:
The green ticker on the station counts the number of water bottles filled, allowing the students to see their impact. The station is hands-free, activating a sensor when covered by a water bottle. Its high-energy efficiency feature reduces energy consumption through compression and insulation, and its silver ion antimicrobial feature keeps the water flow clean of microbes.
How We Did It
The project started out slow, but was greatly benefited by a large donation from our family friend, Linda Culbertson, on behalf of her late husband, world-renowned pop-up book artist Roger Culbertson. These varying, creative pop-up books were sold at events and at Highland Elementary. With additional donations from community members, grants, and Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful's donation of one station, we were able to raise $3,000 to implement two water refill stations and 200 reusable stainless-steel bottles for the Highland staff.
The impact
Based on a survey of Highland teachers and an assessment of how often the stations were used in a single week, we concluded that the project would decrease the daily plastic bottle use at Highland from six bottles to .44 daily. This is a 92.67% reduction in plastic water bottles at Highland Elementary with each station being used three times per person per day.
The same form also found that 72% of teachers and staff surveyed at Highland Elementary were unaware of their annual plastic use.
According to the faculty and staff following the stations' introduction, the students lined up to use the stations during lunch, so excited that they decided to forgo sugary juices.