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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 2018)
Wednesday, January 24, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon Shop Like a LOCAL Plastic 12% Sisters is a tourist town. When you’re a local, shop like one. Bring your own bag! Types of bags offered in Sisters Many businesses in Sisters support — and even sell Plastic & Paper their own — reusable bags. The plastic bag epidemic Paper & Reusable is threatening wildlife, and eventually coming back to 42% 31% humans as plastic particles enter the food chain by way of ocean life. Based on the 23 businesses a Sisters High Paper School team interviewed, each year Sisters puts out approximately 140,000 plastic bags! 15% Do your part in protecting the environment and... Shop Like a LOCAL by Bringing Your Own Bag DATA COLLECTED BY SISTERS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS PLASTIC: Program offered hands-on education on issue Continued from page 1 impacts of riding the bus and bikes and surveyed com- munity members. They pre- sented information to other students and made a proposal to the city council. When they calculated the results of their inquiries they ran an advertisement in The Nugget revealing their findings. Givot gave her class a lot to accomplish, and the stu- dents rose and often exceeded her expectations. ...the students felt empowered to have a positive impact on their community. — Rima Givot “I was really inspired by these freshmen and sopho- more students,” she said. “In addition to learning about the biological role of carbon and ways we can play a part in how it cycles, the students felt empowered to have a pos- itive impact on their commu- nity. They found a wide range of ways to encourage positive $50 OFF Cut & Color or 1/2 OFF Haircut with Morgan Perske, new stylist from Aveda in Portland. change and felt a connection to the community. It’s been a really exciting project!” Student Mary Root hopes Sisters-area residents will get on board as well. Root’s student team interviewed tourist-oriented businesses in town. “We polled businesses and asked them how many bags they used per day and if they use paper bags,” she said. “We wanted to know if they offered reusable bags and promoted them as a healthier way to carry items.” Root found that after the questions were answered, business owners were more aware of how they could mit- igate the overuse of plastics. With large masses of plastic-infused islands called gyres floating off-shore, Root found that plastic bags are a big part of the problem because they are easily trans- ported by wind. The garbage mass in the Pacific Ocean is called the North Pacific Gyre. Root learned why these gar- bage patches are so destruc- tive to marine life. “In these gyres, there are currents that accumulate materials into one area. There are lots of nutrients accumu- lated too, so animals go there to get the nutrients. They also ingest the small particles of plastics that are interspersed with the nutrients. You can see sea turtles that have died and when examined they have plastics in their stomachs.” The students’ research informed them that plastic bags are threatening wild- life in and out of the water. Not only that, humans are affected through plastic par- ticles entering the food chain in the ocean (see related story, page 21). You can see sea turtles that have died and when examined they have plastics in their stomachs. — Mary Root Root and many of her classmates are changing their behavior since doing the proj- ect in Givot’s class. “This has changed me and made me think more about it,” said Root. “I used to use a lot of zip-[close] bags with my lunches, now my fam- ily buys reusable bags with Velcro. I use a lot less plastics than I used to. The purpose of the project was to have the future generation think about it more.” 21 Sisters man helped shift tide on plastic By Katy Yoder Correspondent Prior to a law passed in 1978 — and eventually enforced starting in 1983 — ocean-going vessels and barges carrying garbage sim- ply dumped their waste into the ocean. Marine pollution is known by the acronym MARPOL. The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships known as MARPOL 73/78, is one of the most important inter- national marine conven- tions. After 1983, conditions began to improve through the efforts of environmentalists and concerned mariners who saw firsthand the devastating effects of garbage patches that spread for miles. One Sisters resident dedi- cated 17 years of his career helping shift the tides of the expanding problem. Retired Chief Engineer David Hiller’s career was in the marine industry. He sailed as chief engineer for 19 years on con- tainer ships, tankers and bulk carriers. During that time he saw his share of garbage float- ing on the ocean. Hiller’s career began in 1966. He saw his first large mass of garbage, a quarter- mile in diameter, while head- ing to Wake Island, which is southwest of the Hawaiian Islands. “Forty or 50 years ago, I’d go into harbors in India and Taiwan and they’d be floating with trash,” Hiller recalled. “In Japan in the ’60s and ’70s we’d have to clean our cool- ing water strainers from plas- tic bags. There’s been tremen- dous progress, but we’re not there yet.” Hiller wanted to help solve the problem and educate mar- iners so they could adhere to the MARPOL Treaty and follow marine pollution regulations. “We built software pro- grams to train crews on how not to pollute the oceans … not just plastics but other kinds of pollutions, too. The program is called Meeting MARPOL Standards. My partners and I built an interac- tive program. It’s on several thousand ships as a train- ing program. Crews use it to keep current and adhere to regulations.” Hiller was the subject mat- ter expert on the project. The company is still active, and a demo for their program is available on their website: MARPOLtraining.com. Hiller wants to see every- one take part in cleaning up our planet both on and off the water. “It makes you angry that we do this as a humanity,” he said. “You look at it and it’s no different than going along the highway and seeing garbage coming out of a pick-up truck. It’s the same thing, it’s just the ocean is out of most people’s view. We as a humanity have got to come up with better ways. We can’t continue land- fills. We are going to run out of places to put our waste.” SPRD ZUMBA CLASS Mondays 9 to 10 a.m. Thursdays from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. Instructor: Carol Ast. | $6 drop-in. First class is free. View activities Vi i i i & classes, l and d register i online! li ! www.SistersRecreation.com 1750 W. 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