Dr. Amanda Oldacre, assistant professor of chemistry at St. Lawrence University and a member of Canton’s Sustainability Committee, is pictured with the North Wind After School students. The committee kicked off a campaign to educate the public about problems caused by plastic waste. Photo by Jacqulyn Card.

CANTON – The Canton Sustainability Committee, in partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), Canton Central School, St. Lawrence University, and the League of Women Voters of St. Lawrence County (LWV SLC), is kicking off a campaign to educate the public about the health and environmental problems caused by plastic waste. 

The public education initiative is a result of the Oct. 27 passage by the Village and Town of Canton of a resolution calling for “restaurants and other establishments that serve beverages to make plastic straws available by request only, and to stop providing stirrers made of plastic.” 

On December 1, Dr. Amanda Oldacre, assistant professor of chemistry at St. Lawrence University and a member of Canton’s Sustainability Committee, joined students in CCE’s North Wind After School Program for a special science lesson on microplastics. 

The North Wind After School students also discussed with Dr. Oldacre how microplastics get in our soil and water, as well as how we can reduce their usage of single-use plastics. 

Informational flyers for Canton Central School (CCS) students to take home, and social media posts about ways to reduce plastic waste, are other projects in the works for the Education Sub-Committee of the Canton Sustainability Committee. Members of the Sub-Committee are: Oldacre, Jacqulyn Card and Nick Hamilton-Honey (CCE), Tom Van de Water (CCS), Kathleen Stein (LWV SLC), and Bill Myers (SUNY Canton).

 Anyone interested in joining the Canton Sustainability Committee or its Education Sub-Committee should contact Committee Chair Ann Heidenreich heidenreichann@gmail.com.