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Courtenay Elementary students lobby Town of Comox to clean up ocean plastic

Some Vancouver Island students are not just learning about the problem of ocean plastic – they want to their local government to start cleaning up.
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Some Vancouver Island students are not just learning about the problem of ocean plastic – they want to their local government to start cleaning up.

On Wednesday, June 12, students in Grade 4/5 from Courtenay Elementary school made a presentation to Comox town council. In their presentation, they lobbied the Town of Comox to install a sea bin at the Comox Marina. The purpose of a sea bin is to remove plastic, micro-plastic, and oil from the water.

The students pointed out that currently, there 719 sea bins installed in marinas worldwide, but none in Canada, so Comox would be the first.

The students presented the Town Council with this piece of artwork inspired by Peruvian Dafne Murillo.

The students first learned about the devastating problem of ocean plastic from a live Skype session with experts from the Vancouver Aquarium. After the session was over, the students wanted to find out more about ocean plastics, and more importantly, what they could do to help clean up the mess.

One student, Colton, found the website seabinproject.com, and the students decided that they would like to try and get a sea bin installed at the Comox Marina. The students prepared a PowerPoint presentation, which is what was shown at the town council meeting on Wednesday afternoon.

The students also presented the Town Council with a gift – a piece of artwork inspired by Peruvian Dafne Murillo. Dafne says that her “art is my version of the iceberg metaphor: people can only see the portion above the surface but are oblivious of the portion undersea.”

The students’ presentation was well received by the Comox town council, and they hope to see a Sea Bin being installed soon.