Implementing a School-Wide Ban on Single-Use Plastic Cutlery in a New Jersey Elementary School

Abstract

This case study focuses on the leadership an elementary school principal took in eliminating single-use plastic cutlery in his school cafeteria. He nurtured youth eco-activism, directed toward achieving a healthy and active school and based on practicing sustainable development. Although one might expect that climate activism would vary in propor-tion to the level of a school’s resources, this case highlights that across all resource types, environment-friendly changes that question basic convenience are tough to introduce and implement and require persistence and planning. The case methodology involves a detailed timeline, constructed through interviews with the youth ambassadors, the parent-teacher organization, and the principal, of how the complete ban was ultimately accomplished by providing each student with free stainless-steel cutlery. The study aims to educate and inform education leaders how to navigate, with action and incentives, areas not directly related to academic goals. It is hoped that their engagement in sustainability issues can help challenge traditional static literacy and numeracy curriculums in favor of dynamic curriculums that, earlier in a student’s life and ideally by the age of 15, encompass sustainable lifestyles, as set out in UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 4.7.4 and 4.7.5 on advancing the understanding of global citizenship and sustainability.