Students make a difference !!

The West Branch Middle School Science Club hosted its second annual Energy and Environment Summit, presenting their projects to state legislators, the West Branch mayor and a representative from the Iowa Department of Transportation. Projects ranged from concerns about materials that contaminate the environment and affect humans, such as lead and mercury, to what wearing flip-flops can do to the body.


"The Green Men Group" stressed switching from plastic bags to reusable bags when grocery shopping. If people made the switch, on average that would eliminate the need for six plastic bags a week, or 22,176 bags in a lifetime, group member Bradley Arp said. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to create one year's worth of plastic bags for American use, but the bags are never fully biodegradable, group members said.

The Iowa City Council will discuss a plastic bag ban after council member Connie Champion introduced the idea in December. Thankfully there are a few companies in the world like Kope Initiatives who work hard to promote ecological cotton canvas calico bags to rid the Earth of plastic.