Girl Scouts Teach Good Habits of Recycling, Composting

If Girl Scouts around Novato tell you "that's a bunch of garbage," they know what they're talking about. In fact, when it comes to refuse, they know that most of it isn't garbage at all but instead recyclable or compostable material.

Tamara O'Connor's Scouts from Troop 32597 have helped students at learn what can be recycled and composted this spring as part of their No Waste Lunch Project. They cut their non-recyclable plastic baggie waste in half in a one-month project after learning about the Great Pacific Garbage Patches, two plastic garbage islands the size of Texas floating in our ocean.

"We learned that it takes 500 years for one plastic grocery sack to decompose and 100 years for one plastic spoon to decompose," O'Connor said. "So we invited our sister Brownie/Daisy troop to join us and shared with them the importance of the No Waste Lunch on World Thinking Day (in February)." 

O'Connor shared studies with the girls that showed that the two existing Garbage Patches will hit and possibly surround Hawaii in as little as six years if humans fail to make changes and "bag the bag." When children learn that all of that animated packaging can end up in the Garbage Patch, they choose differently and they enroll their parents, she said.

"This Girl Scout project confirms that there is hope and we are capable of making a change," she said.

The Brownies and Daisies each received a set of bamboo cutlery to keep in their lunch boxes as part of the No Waste Lunch Project. O'Connor said PlanetBox waived the shipping costs for our troop's No Waste lunch boxes.

O'Connor's troop will be on stage in front of 20,000 participants at the 100th anniversary celebration of Girl Scouts on May 4-5 at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton. The seven girls from Novato will join 71 others selected from around the Bay Area by lottery to sing, dance  and lead a choreographed flash-mob-style dance that preceeds a firework extravaganza.

"They have chosen all of the music and worked very hard to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime event," O'Connor said.

Learn more about local Girl Scouts by clicking here.