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Students survey Smithers on plastic use

How many plastic bags do you have stuffed in your closets and drawers at home?
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In 2008, Canadians used approximately 2.86 billion bags, which was enough bags to wrap around the equator of the earth 22 times. Marine mammals and seabirds cannot survive our plastic pollution. Each year, up to one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die from ingestion of or entanglement in plastic.

SSS Youth Action would like to see Smithers follow the path of cities like Montreal and Victoria towards a more plastic-free community. We are gathering information to create an ideal bylaw that will begin to end the use of plastic checkout bags without causing harm to local consumers or businesses. The project will not necessarily ban plastic bags, but will create programs, actions, and effective education to help Smithers become a town that does not use disposable shopping bags.

Once our town is aware and active in using reusable bags, a ban on plastic checkout bags will be possible. This would be a huge step towards omitting harmful plastics from our environment. Please join our movement towards a more waste-free society by encouraging our community to be more environmentally friendly. Smithers Secondary Youth Action would love to hear your voice through our Facebook pages or by participating in our survey.

Our survey is located at surveymonkey.com/r/sssya and can also be found on both the SSS Youth for a Better World and SSS Green Team Facebook pages.

SSS Youth Action