Students inspired to recycle

EASTSIDE, Ore.- Inspired by videos of huge garbage patches in the Pacific Ocean, students at a local middle school have been working to collect items that could otherwise end up in the middle of the ocean.

Fifth graders in Miss Farr's class at Millicoma Intermediate School collect various plastic items from the school cafeteria everyday, mainly potato chip bags and juice boxes. The kids then send the items to a company called TerraCycle, who in return gives them two cents for every item sent in and then turn the used plastic into a new product. The company even provides the youngsters with mailing labels so teachers don't have to pay out of pocket

Teacher Helen Farr says she found the company by searching the web and thought it fit right in to her curriculum.

Kids in her class also recycle plastic bottles and they take the caps off and keep them separate. "The reason for that is they aren't recycled, even when you recycle the bottle the caps are either thrown out or they get, sometimes, tossed and end up out in the ocean and we found that there's a lot of sea life that eats those because they're a really good size for food," says Farr.

While the students take the items for recycling purposes they also work math into the process. The students count the bags to figure out how many chip bags are consumed daily and also which is the more popular chip to eat, which is Doritos.

Last month the class was awarded a grant from the Coos County Cultural Coalition to bring in Bandon artist Angela Pozzi and take part in her Washed Ashore Project.

"My class and I we were getting a little depressed, the more we found out, the worse it got and that was just what we needed so that we could say hey we can do something, we can make some art, free art supplies right on your beach."

The students are now working on coming up with potential art ideas for all the items they've collected.