Taking Action on Plastic Waste

Students at Louisville Middle School have set their sights high. They are aiming to make a global impact as they work to curb plastic waste in Colorado and beyond.

“We know this is a complicated issue and will take bold, innovative solutions,” said Louisville Middle School students Kellan, Adwyn, and Isabelle.

The students, who are members of Global Citizens Environment Club, started by reaching out to an expert on the issue: Jack Buffington, program director and assistant professor of the practice in supply chain management. The students were inspired by Jack’s interview on Colorado Public Radio in September and his book Peak Plastic:  The Rise or Fall of Our Synthetic World, where he estimated that a century of plastic use has created 8.3 billion tons of waste, only about 8% of the materials are being recycled and that plastic production is growing by about the same amount.

The students and Buffington will host a community roundtable to discuss the facts and to begin drafting a plan. The students say the goal of the roundtable is to build an understanding about the data/information regarding the problem of plastic waste and low recycling rates, and then to craft a social entrepreneurship plan that enables them to solve the problem on a community level basis. 

“It requires us to look at this problem differently to include all elements of the problem: the science of plastic and how our end to end supply chains lead to only 8% of all plastic waste being recycled and reused,” the students said.

The roundtable is open to the public and will take place on Thursday, January 23 from 6:00 to 8:00 at the Louisville Middle School (1341 Main Street in Louisville).