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Students kick off Earth Week with grocery store blitz

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Shoppers arriving at Hansen’s Your Independent Grocer Tuesday morning were met with a sea of green. That’s the colour shirts Eco-Exeter students were wearing, as they handed out free re-usable produce bags to shoppers.

“I actually work here too. I watch how much plastic goes out the door, and how much plastic we use and it’s a lot. This our way of helping,” explained grade 10 South Huron Secondary School student and Eco-Exeter member, Isabelle Willert.

Since 2019, a group of South Huron Secondary School students have been on a mission to eliminate single use plastics from their community. Monday’s journey towards that goal took them to Exeter, Ont.’s largest grocery store, where they were giving away reusable produce bags they spent months fundraising, to purchase at cost, from Hansen’s.

“The plastic bags commonly used in the produce department are single use, so they create a lot of waste. So, this way you can re-use this one bag every time you come to the store,” said Eco-Exeter President, and grade 11 student, Ryan Marsh.

With nearly 300 reusable produce bags given away for free to shoppers, students are feeling pretty good about themselves as they embark on a week long of environmentalism to kick off Earth Week.

“It actually started as a science project, Eco-Exeter. It was about sustainability, and then is came out of the school because we wanted to go beyond our hallways and a make a difference,” said the teacher who helped spearhead the creation of Eco-Exeter, Amanda Keller.

Students said they’re proud of the work they’ve done so far where they’ve influenced their school, community, and even their own families.

“I’ve learned so much from the school, and brought it home to my family. My dad is really into reusing bags and using produce bags now, too,” said grade 12 student, Molly Towton. 

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