Each meal served at Simpson Elementary used to come with a plastic spork, a paper napkin and a plastic straw individually wrapped in a little plastic bag.

The Montesano school serves 275 meals a day. Over the 180-day school year, that’s almost 150,000 pieces of plastic used once and discarded. And each year, the school spent more than $1,500 on the packets.

Each day, two large trash bags were filled in the lunch room.

Emily Egger’s fifth grade class changed that. Her class led the school to switch from single-use plastic to reusable metal forks and spoons.

“We always say, ‘It’s fun to drink milk out of a straw,’ ” she said. “But it’s not fun for turtles.”

If you watch enough nature documentaries, you’ll hear about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website, the term can be misleading. It’s not an island of garbage, but a vast region between California and Hawaii where swirling ocean currents collect marine debris (fishing equipment, microplastic, straws and, yes, sporks) that have been discarded and made their way to the ocean. The debris floats from the surface down to the seafloor. There are five of these swirling “gyres” of plastic and debris across the globe.

The plastics last a long time and enter the food chain. Some of the more disturbing visuals produced in the documentaries include plastic contents pulled from the stomachs of creatures like birds, fish and turtles.

The kids in Egger’s class are getting the message about how overuse of plastics can harm the environment. They are changing the way they do things.

“I try not to use as much plastic, and I use reusable things like metal straws, cloth bags and metal water bottles,” fifth-grader Josie Forster said.

The Simpson kids also hope to help protect those creatures and the environment by eliminating some of the plastic waste produced at the school.

“The best part about switching to metal forks and spoons is saving thousands of sea life,” fifth-grader Maddy Wallman wrote when asked about the change. “Some sea animals are even endangered, like a leatherback sea turtle. … I love the ocean, and this is why saving the ocean is my favorite part about switching to silverware.”

The adults

In addition to interesting the kids in the change, Egger wanted the adults at Simpson to be on board.

Principal Chris Cady and the school’s cook, Jan VanBuskirk, quickly embraced the change.

“I’m very, very happy to see we are switching over from sporks to metal utensils,” VanBuskirk said in an email. “To your question of more work for the kitchen, it will be very minimal. No extra storage needed. The dishwasher the school has now will be able to handle the new spoons and forks. I support Ms. Egger and her class effort to switch over to metal utensils.”

Cady also backed the change.

“It’s been a great switch,” he said. “The kids believe in it and have become more environmentally conscious. There is a lot of buy in because they were the advocates for change.”

Cady said a few forks and spoons have made it into the trash because that’s what the kids are used to doing. But they’re working on minimizing that. He said he hasn’t had the chance to speak with other principals in the district about making the switch from plastic.

Egger believes a good way to change other peoples’ habits is to make it easy for them to do so.

“I had to make sure that whatever it was we were doing wasn’t going to add work for anybody else,” Egger said. “The kids can’t wait to be the Earth warrior who stands there … just making sure that when they dump their trays that stuff isn’t getting thrown away.”

OCCU’s help

To make the switch, Egger applied for and got a Community Partners Education Grant. CPEG is a group of eight companies that come together to support teachers in Grays Harbor and Mason counties. Last year, they gave away almost $24,000 in 37 grants to teachers, Amber Trail of Our Community Credit Union said. OCCU is one of the eight companies.

“I wrote (the grant) and was awarded $500,” Egger said. “We had originally asked for $1,000, and we were awarded $500, which is awesome and gracious.”

Egger had hoped to make the switch to metal utensils, purchase reusable bags to distribute to the community and get some snacks for the class with the money.

“Because of the smaller amount of funding, I had to decide which two I wanted to do,” she said. “I’d been talking with the kiddos about it the whole time, and children are very much food driven. So I thought for sure they’d say No. 1 snacks and then maybe No. 2 silverware. And they all said, we’d rather have the grocery bags and the silverware, because it’s going to have a longer lasting effect.”

At two separate times in the process, when given the choice, the students picked helping the environment over snacks.

Egger decided to move forward with the switch to metal utensils and get some snacks for the class, and she reached out to fourth-grade teacher Tina Niels, who wrote a grant for the bags through a group called Climate Fellows.

“We’re getting 200 canvas bags, the nice ones with a square bottom,” Egger said. “I was going to order some affordable ones, but we thought, if we truly want the community members to use them, I want them to be high quality. What kind of grocery bag would I want to use? So we have really nice ones coming. We’re going to team up and get some kids’ artwork to be (screen printed on the bags) in color on one side.”

The grocery bags are awaiting a design, and the art lesson to decorate them has been planned. Egger plans to distribute the bags through Organics 101 in Montesano.

During the transition, Egger’s students made posters explaining the benefits of the change so other students will be as vested in helping the environment as her students are.

Posters touch on topics such as the amount of plastic used daily, the cost savings and the impact the plastics have on wildlife. Many posters are adorned with the students’ favorite animals. (Spoiler alert: There’s lots of turtles and a few narwhals.)

The posters are on display in the Simpson cafeteria, right along side the new forks and spoons.

Hunter Clements poses with his poster on the environment Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Ashlynn Fuller researches images to include in her poster on being aware of what effects plastics have on the environment Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Adam Schmitz (from left), Jack Phillips and Lucas Delgado (right) work together on a poster promoting using less plastic Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. At the back table, Maddy Wallman (left) and Hunter Clements work on posters. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Oscar Arvealo Martinez gathers spoons and forks into buckets to be taken down to the cafeteria Feb. 6 in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano.

Maddy Wallman (left) and Hunter Clements work on a poster promoting changing to metal utensils in the cafeteria Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives. .

Emily Egger (right) answers a question from Riviera Nichols (center) Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. The class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Mya Patton’s poster asks, “How can you use less plastic” and provides an example of what plastic is Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Emily Egger (right) works with a table of kids Wednesday, Feb. 6, on posters that promote the importance of reducing the amount of plastic we use to help the environment in her classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. The class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

McKenzie Cotey discusses how her poster will show the differences between a clean ocean and one with too much plastic in it Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Paige Busz (from left), Emily Wills and Colton Sweet collaborate on Emily’s poster, which depicts a turtle covered in plastic Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Leilah Johnson (from right) describes the “great Pacific garbage patch,” which she researched for her poster, while Riviera Nichols listens Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Kyle Craig (from left) and Benjamin Anderson describe the process that plastic goes through from when oil is extracted from the ground to how plastic enters and affects the oceans Wednesday, Feb. 6, in Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. The poster shows pictures of the various stages plastic goes through. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.

Bentley Warne (right) and Josie Forster (left) join forces to work Wednesday, Feb. 6, on a poster promoting “fun ways” to help the environment in Ms. Emily Egger’s classroom at Simpson Elementary in Montesano. Egger’s class is leading a transformation at the school away from plastic utensils served with breakfast and lunch to using washable metal forks and knives.