Paper or plastic? How about something better than both?

Hundreds of residents in Alachua, Newberry and surrounding communities will now be toting their groceries around in environmentally-friendly reuseable bags rather than paper or plastic thanks to the efforts of a team of students from Newberry High School.

For a week after school, seniors Dakota Herrera, Ashley Hughes, Anna Thrasher, Crystal Hall and Joyce Heckerman set up at the entrances to Hitchcock’s Foodway supermarkets throughout the area. Thanks to financial support provided by Hitchcock’s, the students were able to offer free reusable bags made of recycled materials to the store’s customers. They also provided informational fliers explaining why the bags are much better for the environment than the typical plastic or paper bags. As a result, they won many converts to the ‘green’ bags.

“I think it’s a great idea,” said customer Brenda Sheers. “I get a lot of plastic bags and try to recycle, but it gets to be overwhelming. This is much better for the environment.”

“I found I can get a lot of stuff in these bags,” said Bill Straus. “They’re much easier to carry and I can leave them in the car for the next time I go to the store.”

Those are exactly the kinds of reactions the girls were hoping for.

“A few people have said they’ve been inspired by seeing a group of kids trying to change things,” said Joyce. “They recognize that eventually we’re all going to have to go green.”

The green bag giveaway is just one of many environmental projects the girls have launched since the beginning of the school year. They also started a bottle recycling program in their school, developed and taught elementary students lessons about air quality, created public service announcements on water conservation for the local public access channel and implemented several other projects aimed at protecting the planet.

Their work has already earned national recognition. In November the Newberry High team was one of just 16 in the nation to be recognized in the Lexus Environmental Challenge in the land category for their bottle recycling project. Just recently they were recognized again for their air quality projects. They’ve each won $1000 in scholarships for their projects, and will go on to compete for the organization’s grand-prize challenge later this month. But if you ask them what they’ve enjoyed most about doing their projects, not one of them mentions the recognition.

“Just knowing that we’re helping people understand what’s going on makes me feel good,” said Ashley. “If they know that recycling is better for the environment, they’re more likely to do it.”

“It makes me feel like we’re doing a good job and that the world could actually change, which is really cool,” said Dakota.

Ultimately, the girls hope their projects will encourage many more people to change their behaviors for the sake of the environment.

“We’re just trying to make the environment better and trying to make people see how they can make a difference,” said Crystal .

“The earth is our spaceship, and if we don’t protect it, it’s going to be gone,” said Anna. “We have to act now.”

Throughout the year the students have been mentored, supported and guided by teacher Cynthia Holland. She says their commitment to the environment has grown stronger, but they’ve also developed other important skills in the process.

“They’ve learned how to get more people involved, and they’ve become leaders,” she said. “They’ve really taken to heart the idea that one person can make a difference.”