Hundreds of teen activists have launched creative campaigns to fight plastic pollution all around the world as part of a competition. 15 projects were awarded prize money for their efforts and creativity.
Marine Debris Creative Advocacy Competition
In October 2019, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs (Bow Seat) announced the winners of its Marine Debris Creative Advocacy Competition. The competition challenged particularly middle and high school students to design and lead creative campaigns to inspire action or change and reduce or prevent ocean pollution. Participants involved are from all around the world, including the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Nigeria, Pitcairn, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
Bow Seat’s Marine Debris Creative Advocacy Competition first launched in 2016. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), gave Bow Seat a two-year grant. NOAA supports projects that use education to inspire people to reduce and prevent marine pollution.
Founder of Bow Seat, Linda Cabot, said:
Water connects us all—whether we live in island nations, landlocked communities, or coastal cities—and marine debris is a global, borderless problem that requires a large-scale effort. We are so impressed by the creative, sophisticated, and impactful campaigns. These projects reflect the leadership of today’s youth, who are directing incredible social movements to advocate for the changes they want to see in their communities and for their futures.
Gold Award – Team Marine
The competition’s gold award with a $5,000 prize went to Team Marine, an environmental club from Santa Monica High School in California. The team educated 800 high school students about plastic pollution and successfully lobbied the school district to pass a sustainability plan. The sustainability plan involves integrating environmental literacy and stewardship into the school curriculum.
For the campaign, the team made a giant public art installation out of 600 plastic bottles. The installation provided a platform for them to educate over 400 local people about marine debris and alternatives to using single-use plastics.
Siri Storstein-Norgaard, a Team Marine member, said:
We are now even more committed to improving environmental awareness because we saw the impact our actions can have. From the mom who came back to our booth to show us her purchase of a metal straw to the six-year-old who was disgusted by the video we showed of plastic flowing into the ocean—we saw the difference we were making.
Silver Award – Plastic Free MV
One of two Silver prize winners was Plastic Free MV, with a $2,500 prize. The group of middle-school students helped make their community “the first in North America to ban the sale of single-use plastic water and soda bottles.”
The Plastic Free MV team are residents of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. They understand their fishing and tourist island homes depend on the ocean’s safety; that’s why they keep the beaches clean. However, after doing several beach clean-ups, they noticed marine debris is an increasing threat. They wrote out a bylaw to ban the sale and distribution of single-use plastic water and soda bottles. Then, they put it on the town dockets of three neighborhoods and started convincing individual residents to vote in their favor.
The team held five public forums to display their campaign, spoke at meetings in town, and met with local politicians and business owners. They were busy! The students partnered with the Vineyard Conservation Society, a local organization, to distribute information, refill stations, and find alternative materials and distributors.
Silver Award – EnviroPAST
The other Silver prize winner was EnviroPAST, with a prize of $2,500. E Wen Wong from Burnside High School, Christchurch, New Zealand, developed, organized and hosted “EnviroPAST: Plastic And Sustainability Talks.” This was a 2-day youth-to-youth conference with presentations by businesses, artists, academics, and entrepreneurs in the field of sustainability.
More than 100 students aged 12-24 attended the conference. E Wen teamed up with Trees for Canterbury and the Christchurch City Council to host a tree planting as a part of the conference. Feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive.
Wiser Students
Students that participated in the competition not only made impacts in their schools, communities, and local waters, but they also strengthened their environmental attitudes and behaviors. The students became more confident that they can make a difference by influencing others to refuse single-use plastics and recycle more. The participants realized how important it is to “refuse” plastic, that living sustainable means not creating trash from the start. They continued educating their peers and community members about “R” in waste management, which is “R for refuse,” and provided solutions and resources to support a waste-free lifestyle.
Other Winners
Doorae Shin, a competition guest judge, said:
Having the opportunity to review the entries was so inspiring and uplifting. I loved being able to be reminded of all the hope there is out there.
Besides the gold and two silver awards, Bow Seat awarded one Bronze Award with $1,000. Three won $750 for their Distinguished Honorable Mention Awards; two Honorable Mention Award winners got $500, and six won $100 for Notable Submissions. You can see more information about their competitions, and a descriptive list of all the winners here.
