The Marine Education Center was extremely grateful this month to receive the plant-based gloves from Vegware. During the last month, we had several school groups, community groups, and volunteers from the general public who participated in clean-ups and used the gloves.
Before each group started their clean-up, our naturalist spoke about the gloves and where they came from. They also discussed the importance of compostable products for the planet, especially for ecosystems like the one in our back yard, the Long Island Sound.
A student from Iona College was the first to use the gloves in November. This student was doing her final project on pollution in the Long Island Sound for her Environmental Science class. Besides a clean-up along the beach, we also conducted water quality testing!
We also hosted the Freshman Biology classes from Mamaroneck High School at the beginning of November. Their hour and a half lesson at the Marine Education Center were based around the ecology of Long Island Sound. While some students did some seining to see fish that are important to the sound, other students went and looked for microplastics on the beach.
Marmoneck Highschool Environmental Science classes participated in our clean-up as well. In fact, there were many volunteers attended our clean-ups that were held every Friday in November at 3:30 pm.
Collectively, we had 175 people use the gloves this month and we collected 66 pounds of garbage. We really want to thank Vegware for donating the gloves to us. With our beach clean-ups, it’s especially important to use materials that are safe for the environment. Whenever the community is told that the materials they are using are made of plants they get even more excited! The Vegware gloves are such a wonderful addition to the expanding program at the Marine Education Center. Thank you!
Written by: Kyle Troy, Marine Education Center
