One Simple Change Program

Recently launched!

Program Description:

Through K-12 school and community education, the One Simple Change program targets ways to reduce trash output, marine debris prevention, and removing the current trash on beaches and in waterways, and creating environmental stewards.

Program Abstract:

Marine debris removal is not enough. Education and prevention are essential to reducing the amount of debris entering the world’s waterways and oceans. In response, H2O Trash Patrol has developed and implemented the One Simple Change (OSC) marine debris awareness educational program. The main focus is ways to make changes in our personal habits in order to reduce marine debris. The program is flexible enough to fit into time constraints and the numerous types of teaching methods provided in the school systems. The OSC program educates K-12 children, teachers, and the public that our daily output of trash is greatly impacting our oceans. Approximately 246 million lbs of plastic is consumed daily in the US, with an estimated 24 million lbs of that entering the oceans each day. And an estimated 14 billion lbs of trash is dumped into the oceans worldwide annually. With plastic and trash now outnumbering plankton by 10 to 1, there is a desperate need for education to reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle. The curriculum and products, developed to educate children and the public to make one simple change in their homes, schools, and community, create an impactful and digestible message; everyone can make at least one simple change to reduce their daily trash output without disrupting their current way of living. The curriculum is flexible; from short presentations to a more encompassing Green Week event, addressing one topic per day (i.e. reduce, recycle, compost, etc.).

The OSC program successfully educates students by breaking down the large topic of “being green” into smaller, digestible parts, and encourages them to make at least one simple change in their daily lives to reduce their personal trash output. For example, instead of bringing juice boxes to school with the plastic film covered straws, students are encouraged to bring a reusable water bottle filled with their favorite juice from a larger recyclable juice container. The program also encourages and demonstrates the “ripple effect” of the students, and how their personal actions of reducing trash ripple outward and make a huge difference in the amount of trash that makes it into the oceans each year.

The OSC program has resulted in schools creating recycling and composting programs, waste free lunches being established during school, in students sharing information they learn with their family and friends, creating a “ripple effect”, and hundreds (or thousands) of pounds of trash removed from the beaches and waterways. Plus, the lasting awareness and environmental stewardship is instilled in the students, teachers, parents, staff, and public.

The OSC program has proven successful by implementation of the pilot program at Innovation Centre Encinitas, in Encinitas, California. This school allowed H2O Trash Patrol to utilize it as the first school to carry out the OSC program, which achieved great success. The students were engaged, asked questions, posed solutions, and added their own creativity, especially on the repurpose day, by creating a scarecrow for their school garden, made of reclaimed trash from waterway cleanups.

Green Week at Innovation Centre Encinitas

The message of making one simple change was reinforced each day through classroom activities that incorporated at least one core topic of math, writing, reading, science, and art. For example, the students took an assessment of their lunches, taking into account how many students had reusable water bottles and how many did not. A percentage graph and fraction graph were created to show the data they collected. Another example is the amazing presentations and research that the students made. The impact of the OSC program has inspired these children to start reducing, reusing and recycling at school and at home.

3rd Grader Presentation

In addition, OSC products are made available to schools and the public in order to make the change even more simple. The products developed are an OSC reusable bag that includes reusable eco-items (i.e. straws, water bottles, wipes, etc.) that are offered to encourage making a change. Schools and groups also perform beach and waterway cleanups via standup paddleboards (SUPs) and kayaks to remove current trash while leaving little to no carbon footprint.