This blog post was written by Samantha Moorhead, a 2024 EarthEcho Marine Plastics Ambassador.

The Youth Plastic Mitigation Monitor Campaign was designed to focus on deconstructing and altering youth behavior regarding single-used plastic. As an individual working on my own behavior, I understood the difficulty and challenge of plastic reduction behavior. Therefore, I wanted to begin to address it at a young age when habits are more easily formed. Thus, to address the problem of plastic usage within my community, I created a 3-month campaign that utilized a plastic mitigation monitor–a behavior tracker–working towards long-term change.

My project was centered towards four third-grade classes at my local elementary school. I started my campaign by giving a presentation about plastic pollution, single-use plastics and explained my plastic mitigation monitor. Each student got their own tracker, picked one goal out of four possible options to focus on for each month and received new trackers each month. Each day that a student completed their goal, they checked off the box. I returned every two weeks to check in with the classes, view each student’s tracker, and reward students. Every other week students were rewarded with environmentally focused prizes, like reusable straws, Earth Day bookmarks, and environmental stickers, based on how many days they had completed. Additionally, every single student entered into a raffle for larger prizes and two grand prizes which were tickets to the Museum of Science and Industry with the hope of them visiting the Blue Paradox Exhibit–an exhibit focused on plastic pollution.

Campaign Impact:

• Impacted 85 local families with letters written to families about plastic pollution and my campaign
• Presented to 85 local third graders about plastic pollution
• Over 2,900 total days of youth successfully practicing plastic mitigation (checked off on monitor)
• Over 900 environmentally focused prizes handed out

Overall, I am very happy with my campaign and the impact it had on the 85 third graders and their families. I got countless comments from families and students about their interest in this campaign and proudness of themselves for what they did. One student even reported he had picked up over 14 lbs of plastic in just 2 weeks. There were several challenges like creating an easy to use behavior tracker, ensuring all students were able to earn some sort of prizes and most of all explaining a complex and emotional issue to a young population of people. 

Throughout this campaign, I have grown in my ability to communicate with youth as well as with adults as I spoke with teachers and parents frequently. As a Marine Plastic Ambassador, this project has helped me grow to become more consistent with my own plastic reduction behavior. Additionally, it has inspired me to grow my belief in youth as I learned that small adjustments can lead to powerful change.

Beyond this three-month pilot campaign, I plan to prepare a campaign kit so that this program can be implemented by other organizations through schools, zoos, libraries, etc. This way there can be a long lasting impact of this campaign to directly address the contributions individuals make to plastic pollution. I also plan to post it online to be available at the individual level for any families or individuals that want to challenge themselves to grow in their plastic mitigation.

Plastic Mitigation Monitor Online PDF 

If you have any questions or are interested in adopting this campaign for your own community or organization, please feel free to contact me at samanthamoorhead@hotmail.com.