Ms. Cahill and Ms. Tom’s Senior Y-Plan class were responsible of the distribution of the S’well bottles WHSAD received.
The company S’well gave away approximately 320,000 beverage bottles to New York City schools, including one for every student at WHSAD.
According to Ms. Tom, the 12th grade environmental teacher and the person in charge of recycling at WHSAD, “The CEO of S’well decided to make her initiative this year and donate bottles to every high school students in the DOE” S’well’s generosity came from the desire to eliminate 54 million Plastic bottles by giving a reusable alternative.
Mike Collado, a 12th grader and member of the Y-Plan Project, uses his bottle daily and notices students do so as well; he constantly see’s someone refilling their bottles and believes that this is a good sign since the bottles are serving their purpose of being reused. Meanwhile 12th grader Melina Jorge, yet another Y-Plan member, said that the only things associated with S’well that have been found in the garbage are the cardboard in the green bin and plastic in the garbage. This goes to show that students aren’t only reusing the bottles, but they are also recycling. So Ms. Tom’s inference about Swell’s bottles making students more aware of the impact that plastic has on the planet was correct after all.
Stephanie Ayala 12th grader in Y-Plan, says that “the bottles will only make a change if consumers take knowledge of the reason they got their free bottles. Instead of just thinking it as a product someone is simply giving them” In this case the reason that the bottles are being given is that S’well plans on eliminating millions of plastic bottles from being used or even made. And is this plan working? Well, according to Melina Jorge, less plastic bottles are being used in WHSAD, and just as Mike stated, the S’wells bottles are being reused, causing S’wells plan to work perfectly as planned.