In favor of biodegradable

Students in Ensign Intermediate School’s Marine Studies Club have been working on saving local waterways, removing one plastic fork at a time.

The after-school club at the Newport Beach middle school is participating in the Southern California Science Fair Project competition, sponsored by the Quicksilver Foundation and USC’s Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies.

This year’s competition is challenging more than 100 middle and high school teams to create, conduct and make conclusions on self-designed science projects.

Thirteen Ensign students, under the direction of physical education teacher and club director Joe Fuschetti, have chosen to explore how plastic utensils and Styrofoam affect local waterways.

Last week, the seventh- and eighth-graders were putting final touches on a skit they will videotape and submit with their finalized project Friday. A green-clad student with a large plastic turtle shell strapped onto his back mock swam in the ocean. His strokes were stopped when he encountered two other students holding oversized spoon and fork cardboard cutouts.

“The plastic attacks the turtle, and he dies,” said eighth-grade student Colin Duffy, 13. Since November, the club members have been encouraging their peers to recycle by buying and maintaining recycle bins on campus.

“I go body boarding all the time, and I always see plastic,” Colin said. “I live on the Back Bay, and this project gives me a chance to make a difference.”

“Do you know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?” Colin asked. “It’s twice the size of Texas! It’s in the middle of the ocean where the currents meet, and 80% of it is plastic from the mainland.”

This is the type of illustration that students in the club have been giving local restaurant owners. As part of their project, the Ensign students are canvassing local restaurants, encouraging them to switch from plastic and Styrofoam materials to biodegradable ones.

“They’ve been pretty interested,” said Jenny Jones, who canvassed Balboa Island with fellow eighth-grader, Emily Flores, 13, last week.

“Their main concern is cost,” Emily said.

“We showed them they can Google websites, and there are biodegradable products they can get at the same cost,” Jenny said.

“People listen more to kids. If it was me, they would think I had an agenda; with kids, it’s easier,” said Prithvi Raj, a fourth-year graduate student in molecular biology at USC, and the group’s mentor.

Raj spends two hours a week working with the students on their project, answering their questions, encouraging their ideas and teaching them about the wildlife around them.

“We ride our bikes along the Santa Ana River, and always see wildlife swimming in plastic. I’ve been hoping to learn more and to get a chance to help,” said Jenny Jones, 14, an eighth-grader. “This is a great start.”

Emily, who arrives to school 30 minutes early a couple of times a week to empty and set out the campus recycle bins, agreed that the competition is a springboard only.

“We’re going to keep it up, even when the project is over,” she said.