2018, Greeley, Colorado, USA
Grace Patrick, Greeley Central High School
After reading an article from the “Last Plastic Straw”, Grace decided to be the change she wanted to see.
Her first step was to collect data on the number of plastic straws that were thrown out by popular restaurants in Greeley. On several Friday nights, she collected the used straws from all of the restaurants. On subsequent Fridays, she asked the restaurants to only serve straws upon request and collected those used straws. From this data, when was able to determine straw savings and convinced each restaurant to offer straws upon request only.
Grace then printed a table tent that explained the rationale for changing straw usage for the customers to read. In addition, Grace donated paper straws with the Caring for Our Watersheds logo to replace the plastic straws. Finally, Grace used the plastic straws she collected to create a piece of artwork for each establishment. The artwork now hangs in each restaurant.