With 27 schools and over 16,000 students, Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) policy broadly impacts our local environment and community. From environmental science course offerings to on-site composting and solar energy installation projects, VUSD has championed many environmental initiatives, but a glaring sustainability shortcoming remains: plastic waste.

VUSD cafeterias are inundated with single-use plastics—over 600,000 plastic spork packs were used in the 2023-24 school year alone. As a VUSD student of 11 years, I have seen many images of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, encouraging my peers and I to volunteer at beach cleanups, and teaching us that plastic production harms the environment and exacerbates climate change. Yet, we are served plastic sporks wrapped in plastic packaging each day at lunch. VUSD must begin to show—not merely tell—students how to be responsible citizens and environmental stewards.

The current plastic sporks aren’t just encouraging environmental complacency in students and staff, but actively harming Ventura’s ecosystems. Plastic sporks that litter school campuses inevitably make their way into barrancas and storm drains, jeopardizing the health of wildlife and polluting local beaches, waters, and ocean spaces. According to data from the UN Environment Programme, “every day, the equivalent of 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers, and lakes,” and VUSD is contributing to this at the local level. For example, in 2024 Ventura Land Trust (VLT) removed an average of 1,697 lbs. of trash every month from the Ventura River, with plastic waste making up a significant portion of that total. Still, sporks that make it into the trash bin have adverse impacts. From production to disposal, plastic significantly contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and microplastic pollution.

Cost is the primary reason VUSD continues to distribute plastic sporks. The current utensil packs, which come with a plastic spork and paper napkin in sealed plastic wrapping, cost approximately 1 cent per unit, which is far less than any environmentally preferable disposable alternative such as wood or bamboo. However, myself and fellow VUSD students and community members have identified multiple financially feasible solutions.

First, VUSD can purchase plastic sporks without the plastic wrapping. If sanitation is a concern, reusable dispensers are readily available and affordable. This is an extremely simple first step that would drastically reduce unnecessary plastic waste and could be implemented almost immediately.

We are also encouraging the District to run a year-long stainless steel spork pilot program at an elementary school site where a commercial dishwasher either exists, or can be installed. The company Plastic Free Restaurants will give VUSD stainless steel sporks for free, and even with the cost of a dishwasher, it is projected that VUSD will begin saving money within a year. Similar programs have proven to be more financially efficient in many other districts in California, including Goleta Unified. After running a pilot program, students and community members hope that VUSD will be able to make an informed decision about district-wide implementation of sustainable sporks.

If you want to compel VUSD to consider these solutions and establish a student sustainability task force to oversee their implementation, consider signing this petition, which was created by myself and three other members of Foothill Technology High School’s Environmental Action Club. We are also working to get a sustainability resolution passed by the VUSD Board of Trustees, so make your voice heard to support local youth and protect our environment.

[Foothill Technology High School student Beatrice Barnes speaking about plastic utensil waste at the Ventura Unified School District board meeting on Nov. 19, 2024, photo from Ventura Unified School District

(VUSD) YouTube channel] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4dVk6xEwYE

References

Ventura Unified School District: Home, https://www.venturausd.org/. Accessed 26 November 2024.
“How Do I Get A Subsidy?” Plastic Free Restaurants, https://www.plasticfreerestaurants.org/subsidy.
“Plastic Pollution.” UN Environment Programme, https://www.unep.org/plastic-pollution.
“Ventura Unified to Become 1st District on Central Coast to Utilize IRA Funding, Launching Clean Energy Program with ENGIE.” ENGIE, https://www.engie-na.com/ventura-unified-to-become-1st-district-on-central-coast-to-utilize-ira-funding-launching-clean-energy-program-with-engie/.
“Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” National Geographic Education, https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/great-pacific-garbage-patch/. Accessed 26 November 2024.