{"id":23730,"date":"2019-05-15T16:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-15T22:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/dillon-valley-elementary-students-spur-plastic-bag-fee-conversations-in-dillon\/"},"modified":"2019-05-15T16:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-15T22:40:00","slug":"dillon-valley-elementary-students-spur-plastic-bag-fee-conversations-in-dillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/dillon-valley-elementary-students-spur-plastic-bag-fee-conversations-in-dillon\/","title":{"rendered":"Dillon Valley Elementary students spur plastic bag fee conversations in Dillon"},"content":{"rendered":"
Satori Adnan (10), Miguel Castillo (11) and Vasilya Nosirova (11) pose with their petition inside the library at Dillon Valley Elementary School.<\/strong>
Sawyer D\u2019Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students at Dillon Valley Elementary School are hoping to show the community that big ideas can come from litle kids.<\/p>\n

Fifth graders Vasilya Nosirova, Miguel Castillo and Satori Adnan gave a presentation for the Dillon Town Council at their regular meeting last Tuesday, hoping to push town officials to consider a plastic grocery bag fee. Town representatives are optimistic that policy can be created to combat environmental concerns surrounding plastic bags, and the students could make all the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of changes to environmental policy really resonate when kids are leading the charge,\u201d said Tom Acre, Dillon\u2019s town manager. \u201cIt\u2019s their world they\u2019re trying to protect, instead of leaving it to us to do it for them. It\u2019s great they want to get involved, and this could go a lot further if the community knows the younger generation is concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students began the effort as part of their Exhibition project \u2014 student-led experiences wherein fifth graders choose a topic, conduct indepth research and propose possible actions. The projects culminate in presentations in front of other students and community members. The plastic bag group will be presenting this Thursday, with Acre in the audience.<\/p>\n

The students said that their interest in the topic emerged from a natural fascination with wildlife and the environment, and the group soon learned how detrimental plastic bags could be on the ecosystem and what other entities were doing to combat the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were reading articles and we noticed that there were a lot of animals that were getting hurt like whales, turtles and polar bears,\u201d said Nosirova. \u201cWe wanted to do something with that, and we thought plastic bags were the perfect thing. I think if we put a fee on plastic grocery bags it would be great for the environment and it will help out a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned that they found a whale that had 88 pounds of plastic inside of him,\u201d added Castillo. \u201cThere\u2019s already a lot of animals dying from hunting and stuff, and now they\u2019re dying from pollution.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the project, the students met with Dillon Mayor Carolyn Skowyra to discuss potential actions related to the issue, who recommended a petition with student signatures in support of their proposal. Together, the kids were able to gather more than 200 signatures in support of their goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought that doing the petition would probably help in trying to lower plastic bag use in Dillon, so we decided to do it,\u201d said Adnan. \u201cWe went around the school to almost every single classroom asking kids to sign it \u2026 everyone was really supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kids\u2019 proposal essentially calls for a small fee for plastic bags at grocery stores, similar to the 10-cent fee adopted by Breckenridge back in April 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of note, Acre said that this isn\u2019t the first time a plastic bag fee has been proposed to the town. Former Councilman Tim Westerberg broached the subject with the council before his exit last year, though the idea has sat stagnant ever since, despite some interest from council members.<\/p>\n

But the students\u2019 proposal and petition has seemingly lit a small fire under town staff, and Acre said the town would begin efforts to put together an ordinance on the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thought is we\u2019ll get adults and the kids together and map out the strategy moving forward, and start putting boots on the ground to make it happen,\u201d said Acre. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to recreate the wheel. We can borrow from other communities, and learn what was successful and what wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the idea is still in its relative infancy, the kids have forced some positive momentum behind the prospect. Acre said that the town is hoping to start a community work group \u2014 composed of the kids and other interested adults \u2014 to help communicate the proposal to the business community, and give feedback to staff on what a potential ordinance would contain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis aligns nicely with the climate action plan we\u2019ve adopted<\/a>, and it\u2019s something really tangible we can do to make a difference,\u201d said Kerstin Anderson, marketing and communications director for Dillon. \u201cThere\u2019s always been other priorities at the forefront. But now with this group, it allows us to move forward with some momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Satori Adnan (10), Miguel Castillo (11) and Vasilya Nosirova (11) pose with their petition inside the library at Dillon Valley Elementary School.Sawyer D\u2019Argonne \/ sdargonne@summitdaily.com Students at Dillon Valley Elementary School are hoping to show the community that big ideas can come from litle kids. Fifth graders Vasilya Nosirova, Miguel Castillo and Satori Adnan gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 22:39:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}