Middle School Students Promote Sustainability on Earth Day

Did you know that it's expected there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by 2050?

Middle school students from Lake Travis STEM Academy aimed to make an impact on their community on Earth Day by addressing this issue. Students passed out reusable tee shirt bags at their local HEB and talked with customers about plastic pollution.

“The experience helped me with my social skills,” said one student.

“I enjoyed giving back to the community,” said another.

Students made the bags during their Hub class, a project-based, interdisciplinary period in which students work together to design solutions to real-world problems.

Single-use plastic shopping bags are a significant source of environmental pollution. Though the City of Austin’s single-use bag ban originally went into effect in 2013, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that a similar ban in Laredo violated state law. As a result, the City of Austin is no longer able to enforce the single-use bag ban. Despite this, retailers like HEB still encourage customers to bring reusable bags.