The WHALE TAIL Grant, in the amount of $9,799, was awarded to the Arcata Community Recycling Center. The California Coastal Commission funded 23 programs. The project title is “Seeing the Sea and Marine Debris”

The Arcata Community Recycling Center (ACRC), a nonprofit organization, has designed this project, which will directly benefit the students in the Arcata School District. ACRC will teach the students at Arcata Elementary School about the environmental impacts of marine debris and the plastics that have concentrated in the North Pacific Gyre. In addition to operating a recycling facility and depot for reusable materials, ACRC provides education programs about recycling and waste reduction. Lessons would be tailored to different grade levels. For example, students in grades K-2 will read a picture book about the Pacific Ocean, watch a puppet show about a turtle tangled in debris, and sing a song with body movements that mimic the North Pacific Gyre. Students in grades 3 through 5 will take a fieldtrip to the ACRC and view a slide show about the Ocean and the Gyre, take part in a skit about turtle entanglement, see a demonstration about the movement of trash and simple solutions to prevent it, and examine and compare microscopic samples of plankton and degraded plastics.

AES students will also conduct a plastic bottle collection drive. After the bottles are collected,they will be linked into long strands and assembled into an art installation, placed in a swirling pattern on the field at Arcata Elementary, simulating the garbage in the North Pacific Gyre. Student art depicting marine animals would be woven into the strands. A helicopter would fly overhead to capture images of the swirling plastic from the air. The plastics will then go to the ACRC, separated, and recycled. Under the direction of Maureen McGarry, Project Coordinator, students at the After-School Education Program will document the project on video to share with schools in the region, and on public access television.

If you would like contribute to our plastic bottle drive, contact Margaret Flenner, AES Principal, or Maureen McGarry at (707) 822-4858.