[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
Last week, the members of a local Daisy Troop learned how they can help protect wildlife from the impacts of what we buy and how we dispose of it by reducing, reusing and recycling.
Abigail Miller, a fifth grade essayist from Deerfield whose inspiring essay was published in the Hometown Weekly several weeks ago, spoke about how careless disposal of plastics harms hundreds of thousands of sea creatures, including turtles, fish and dolphins.
She shared some compelling pictures of trash that flows from streets and beaches into the ocean entangling and being eaten by ocean animals. She explained how proper recycling, and not littering, can prevent this.
Claire Galkowski, a local recycing professional, distributed beanie babies representing forest and sea animals. Some of the girls already knew that paper was made from trees.
Galkowski explained that cutting down trees to make paper products destroys the homes of many forest animals. Using less paper, such as using rags instead of paper towels, and properly recycling clean paper reduces the need for forests to be destroyed to make new paper.
She and Abigail also pointed out that plastic bags should not be recycled in our curbside carts- they tangle up the sorting equipment at the processing facility. Instead, clean plastic bags can go to the special bin at the supermarket.
Some of the Daisies told how they reuse their plastic bags, and cut down on paper use by using chalkboards or white boards.
