Roosevelt Island Student Environmental Heroes Giving Away Free Reusable Bags Wednesday February 26 At Local Foodtown Supermarket - NYC Plastic Bag Ban Starts March 1

The New York City Plastic Bag ban begins Sunday March 1.

Plastic bags are banned starting March 1!@NYCSanitation is giving away reusable bags all week, pick one up and help save our planet: https://t.co/zYXbKezxmj pic.twitter.com/Jb7Yb4NDnv

— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) February 22, 2020

Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) Children, Youth & Education Ad Hoc Committee Chair Adib Mansour reports:

As you may already know, plastic bags will be banned in New York City as of March 1st. RIRA’s Children, Youth & Education Committee has been teaching the youth at the Child Center of NY about sound environmental practices. They have become Roosevelt Island’s:

“Environmental Heroes.”

 Come join our youth at the new FoodTown and receive a free reusable bag, donated by the generosity of:

Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Ben Kallos, RIOC President Susan Rosenthal.

Wednesday, Feb. 26 - 3:30 PM at Roosevelt Island FoodTown

NYC CBS New York reports on the NYC Plastic Bag ban including views from both supporters and opponents of the plastic bag ban



Roosevelt Island Foodtown supermarket owner Nick D'Agostino

is interviewed in the video concerned about paper bag supply problems and says he will have to charge customers 15 cents per paper bag.

RIRA's Adib Mansour adds:

The RIRA Children, Youth & Education Committee has taken on the challenge to fight global warming on a community level. I am always surprised on how much knowledge the kids capture, even the littlest ones. The committee has been giving lessons on sound environment solutions to the 4th graders and middle schoolers at the Child Center of NY after school program for the last two months. Each Monday the Fourth Graders get a lesson, Tuesdays is the middle schoolers’ turn. On Wednesday, I combine both classes and divide them into two groups in an Environmental Game where contestants from each group answer questions from the lessons they’ve learned. Currently Group B has two wins while Group A has one. These students are calling themselves Environment Heroes.
Thus far we have 8 lessons. We started with the immediate solutions, that every student can do at home in his/her daily routines. Then went into lessons on how bad plastic bags are for our earth, hence the reason NYC is adopting the new Bag Waste Reduction Law which will get into effect March 1st. For this occasion, the committee is organizing a No Plastic Bags awareness on February 26th at 3:15PM. The event will be held at our island’s new FoodTown where the students will be accompanied by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Council Member Ben Kallos, and RIOC President Susan. Free reusable bag, donated by our politicians will be distributed by the students.

I always believed that the youth are the perfect teachers for a community. As the students learn about the solutions for our community and our earth, they become the teachers for their families, friends, and neighbors. The Child Center of NY has been gracious in allowing RIRA’s CY&E Committee engage the youth. Each students received a white binder where they can attach their weekly lessons.

The lessons the’ve already learned are:

Lesson 1- The 4 Good R’s. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. However, the students insisted on adding a new R, Refusing. They want the residents to refuse unnecessary plastic (bags and utensils) from takeout places. “Why take plastic utensils when you have a full set at home!” explained one of the Fourth Graders. The students learned what and how you can recycle. We are researching alternative takeout packaging for our restaurants. Using aluminum and plastic packaging should be something of the past. There are numerous alternatives with recycled and biodegradable packaging. The students will present these environment friendly packages and their prices to the vendors. Each restaurant that accepts the students’ proposals will have a sticker with the Environment Heroes on their door.

Lessons 2&3- Greta Thunberg: The students learned about Greta Thunberg, the Times Magazine’s Person of the Year, Nobel Peace Prize nominee who “embodies youth activism” to fight global warming. The students read aloud Greta’s speech at the UN Climate Summit and analyzed what she said to the world’s presidents and the way she delivered her stern speech.

Lesson 4- Both classes learned about composting. RIRA’s Chris Gassman was a guest speaker who taught them about the benefit of composting and the efforts on Roosevelt Island every Saturday. They also participated in the 1st Engage RI with these 2 speeches they wrote and read during the event

Hello, I am a middle school student at the Child Center of NY after-school program on our beautiful Roosevelt Island.

Most of us are aware of the changes the earth is going through. Some of these changes are caused by pollution. Over the last century, people have polluted nature with industrial and household waste. For example, plastic bags that are not biodegradable; they are photodegradable which means they break down into smaller and smaller toxic pieces.

A regular plastic bag can take up between 400 to 1,000 years to break down. As it breaks down, plastic particles contaminate soil and waterways. Some animals accidentally ingest them, which can eventually kill them. Other animals get trapped in plastic bags, with no way to escape. Plastic Bags are so common in the United Sates; more than 100 billion bags are used each year. Many of these bags are not recycled and end up as litter in our forests and waterways.

Many people in New York City and on Roosevelt Island don’t know that in March 2020, there will be no plastic bags in stores. My group will be letting people and the store owners prepare for this big change that is truly better for our community and the earth.

Also, not everything is recycled correctly, or at all. For example, food cans are problematic. You must remove the paper on the can and clean it from the inside in order for the cans to be recycled, otherwise it will end up in the dumps.

Mr. Bluebeard is teaching us how to be Eco-Friendly and how to be active in our community to become zero waste. He is also teaching us about recycling and what we can to help the earth!

Thank you for listening.

The second one:

Thank you all for coming. I’m a middle school student from PS/IS 217 and a part of the Child Center of NY’s afterschool program. I am here to talk to you about 4 things to help the earth:

1: Plastic kills animals: At first I thought “why are they getting rid of plastic bags!?” But then I learned that when plastic bags are put in landfills or dumps, they eventually end up in the sea. An unacceptable big number of sea animals are dying. I heard experts of the ocean have found many dead fish, even whales, because of the plastic bags being dumped in the ocean. A lot of the time trash is going in to the ocean. Have you heard of the turtles that got a plastic straw up its nose? This happened because we use too much plastic. I feel so bad for those dead fish, whales and turtles. DON’T YOU? This will keep happening if we don’t stop using plastic. That’s why I think we should all stop using plastic and plastic bags whenever we can.

2: Recycling: We should all start recycling if you haven’t already because is saves energy and pollution. By recycling items, producers and manufacturers save time and energy not to have to make something from scratch. It also reduces landfill over usage. Recycling reduces the amount of waste we end up sending to landfill sites. It preserves natural resources rather than using our natural resources It reduces global warming. These are some of the reasons why you and I should recycle.

3: Why do we even use so much plastic I honestly don’t know why we need so much plastic because when we order take out, they give you plastic forks and spoons. DON’T WE ALL HAVE UTENCILS at home? So why do they need to give them to us? When we go to the store they give us a plastic bag. We should use things like backpacks instead because plastic bags are light and they get easily picked up by the wind and end up polluting nature.

4: How can we stop plastic pollution? We can stop using plastic by 4 R words: Reduce, Refuse, Re-use, and Recycle. We can reduce our plastic waste. We can re-use by bringing your own re-usable shopping bag so we don’t have to use the stores’ plastic bags. We can refuse to use straws. All you have to say is “NO straw please” when getting a beverage.

Do you wan t an island full of plastic bags or an island full of flowers? This is why I think we should stop using plastic.

Thank you!

Lesson 5 and 6: The students learned about the worldwide epidemic plastic bags create on our earth and the thousands of animals they kills every year. Making plastic bags emits pollution and then end up in our waterways and oceans. The students are aware of the plastic bags ban in NYC and would like to teach the islanders ways they can replace them with other methods to carry their groceries. They will be decorating their own hand-made canvas bags with RIRA’s Kaja Meade.

Lesson 7: was all about the everyday things we should be doing for our environment. They learned about conserving water and electricity as well as using biodegradable and non-toxic products such as shampoo, house cleaning, etc. They were given numerous examples of eco-friendly products they could suggest to their families and friends in addition to buying local and how lucky we are to have a farmer’s market every Saturday.

Lesson 8: My favorite series of lesson start with worldwide inventions to help the earth. They learned about the SEABIN that collects refuse and garbage in marinas around the world, as well as the machine that transforms glass bottles into sand, which is then used in construction, instead of beach sand.

Stay tuned for more lessons and activities by the youth of our island. They will be visiting the Seniors Center to talk with the elders of our island and discuss solutions for our community.

Starting March 1,2020,single-use plastic bags are banned,w/limited exceptions, in NY State. In addition, businesses will begin collecting a five-cent fee on paper carryout bags in NYC.This fee will not apply to any customers using SNAP or WIC.More: https://t.co/9cfbjUn6P0 #byobag pic.twitter.com/0Wjof2SXln

— NYC zerowaste (@NYCzerowaste) February 14, 2020

CBS New York has more views from NY'ers on the plastic bottle ban.



Also, Roosvelt Island resident Karen Lee reports:

Come see an ART INSTALLATION that might inspire you to think outside the plastic bag.

Pick up some tips that can minimize your need for a plastic bag.

Get a glimpse of how our recyclables get processed. Learn what really matters.

Learn some easy tips on how to fit kitchen scrap drop off that into your life.

Come share your ideas and learn a few tips from many who are trying to minimize what ends up in landfill.

Bring an item that you aren’t sure whether it’s trash or recyclable. If you don’t have a used battery drop off in your building -bring it.

Saturday February 29th 2:00-5:00pm.

Rivercross Community Room 531 Main Street,

-Drop in anytime and experience an installation to get us moving to a greener planet. Talks will be at

2:00, 3:00, 4:00

RSVP required for Non-Rivercross tenants & guests. KTSENLEE@AOL.COM