Stay Green For Red Ribbon Week

Although the song by Toby Keith states, “A red solo cup is cheap and disposable and in fourteen years they are decomposable,” this is simply not true. Solo cups are actually classified as a polystyrene, a recycling #6 plastic which is notorious for its inability to decompose. In fact, it takes around 500 years for a single solo cup to break down.

As AGS students, we have all seen the large display of these cups pressed into the gaps of our back fence reading “Drug Free”. The message was set up Tuesday, October 29th and taken down shortly after the end of Red Ribbon Week. And, as said in assembly, the cups that were used this year were recycled from last year’s display. However, the position of these cups outside poses a threat to our environment. In 2018, many students remember that the cups fell off the fence, either into the woods or onto the back field. Since plastic is a harmful product to our environment, and, as we are trying to reduce the amount of single-use plastic in our school, an alternative source should be used to convey the importance of healthy living, both for the individual and for the environment.

The drug-free message is an important one to spread especially in the midst of a modern vaping epidemic. So, we, with the utmost respect for our teachers and peers, ask, is it possible to display that message in a waste-free manner? Perhaps with a showcase within the walls of our school or an ongoing student-led project to educate peers on the dangers of drug use. This would send not only the message that personal health is essential, but also, it would reiterate the importance of protecting the health of the world around us.