DAPHNE, Ala.— Teens in Jennifer Jayne’s advanced-placement environmental science class at Daphne High School have an answer to the age-old question, “paper or plastic?”

It’s neither.

Students at a presentation to a group of about 30 Thursday explained the environmental benefits of reusing cloth bags instead of using disposable plastic bags.

They explained three different forms of pollution—water, land and air—and how members of the community can decrease environmental hazards in each area.

“Preventing pollutants from entering water is the safest,” Sydney Petite said.

Teens explained stresses on marine life caused by foreign materials in the ocean, such as a plastic six-pack ring that could deform a sea turtle if it remained caught around the abdomen. Also, plastic bags can be mistaken for jelly fish—a common food source for many marine creatures—causing sickness or death when ingested.

“The bags are very good at winding up in the ocean … and harming marine organisms,” Mallory Barrett said.

Students said that plastic bags have a large role in land pollution because one bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. Bags take up landfill space and litter roadsides, parks and yards.

Finally, air is polluted in the cycle of bag production as nonrenewable resources are used and factories cause smog and other air pollutants, teens said.

Students were inspired to go beyond regular classroom learning when they were enlightened on such issues in a National Estuary Program slide presentation that Jaynes brought to the class.

The display showed that due to tons of waste caused by using disposable plastic bags, some countries are imposing laws and taxes on the use of plastic bags.

“Ireland is the poster child of PlasTax (a tax charged to dispose of plastic bags),” Mallory said.

She said developing countries have also joined the fight. Countries like Tanzania have also imposed laws and taxes.

“If developing countries can put this into action, why can’t one of the most developed countries in the world—ours—do something?” Mallory said.

And there, students introduced the reusable bag. Students gave cloth bags with their slogan, “Paper? Plastic? Neither.” to audience members and encouraged them to use these bags for groceries and other store-bought items rather than having cashiers put items in plastic bags.

“This was an inspiration to get us out and going on this movement,” Sydney said.

Jaynes marveled at her students’ energy and motivation with the project.

“This whole entire thing was their idea—I just gave them the avenue to do it,” she said. “They took their part and they ran with it.”

“I said, ‘We can do this, but we still have to do our chapters’; …they put this thing together in three weeks.”

Problems with plastic:

Source: Marine Conservation Society