Meet Anthony Baker, a Junior at New Rochelle HS. He can remember that at some point in his elementary school times at Trinity elementary school, We Future Cycle got hired and eliminated Styrofoam trays from the schools and started the recycling program that is running in all schools. By now, it is normal behavior for students to walk up to the station and quickly sort their lunch waste into recyclable packaging, non recyclable materials and organic materials to be composted.

Anthony has recently decided to become more active and fight for even more change. He went to a recent Board of Education meeting to present the need to remove even more single use plastics from our lunchrooms.

Recently, he wrote this letter to his former elementary school principal. These are powerful words and I asked his permission to post his letter publicly.

Dear Mr. Hildebrand, 

My name is Anthony Baker, I am a junior at New Rochelle High School. You may or may not remember me, I spoke at the board of education meeting at Albert Leonard. I went to Trinity and I am extremely passionate about the environment.

I consider Trinity to be the birthplace of my passion, for it was there that I was taught how to recycle, how to reduce, and how to reuse. Trinity was the first place I was exposed to environmental issues and it was the first place that I became aware of the planet on which we live. I remember watching a brainpop video in my second grade CILA class about climate change; I remember feeling scared, and hopeless. 

I remember when I used to be served lunch on styrofoam trays in the Trinity cafeteria, I always used to use my plastic fork to poke holes in my tray. I realize now that this whole picture was just wrong. Now our cafeterias are void of styrofoam but this picture has two parts. Not just styrofoam but also plastic. Plastic is the cancer of our dying world. Our planet is infested with tumors of plastic, slowly choking her organs, day after day after day. I wonder how much longer our planet can even sustain itself with our plastic output. But this factor of fear, this image of destruction, this is what deters so many from action. We all fall into the closed mentality that it is a problem that is too big to fix; we feel guilty, we feel like victims. And at the worst, we are forced to recognize our own error. Our collective human error. We share a sense of mutual guilt with one another. We are afraid to be called out and we are afraid to call out. But now more than ever, we need to call out. We need to scream, we need to shout. 

When I spoke to the board of education about plastic output I spoke with genuine concern. I spoke because I was scared. I spoke because I saw something happening that was wrong. And I speak now because I continue to see a practice that is detrimental to ecological stability and the welfare of our human ecosystem.

This practice is the distribution of plastic utensils. I believe it is time that we at the very least consider the thought of a world in which New Rochelle Public Schools do not supply students with plastic utensils. A world where we use metal utensils not just at home, but at school too. 

This is not an ambitious idea, it is not a new idea, it is simply the way things used to be. It may seem outlandish to some, but that is simply because we have become accustomed to a world of single use and a world of disposability. 

With this, I am asking that you consider a motion for a plastic utensil free Trinity Elementary School. I believe that we have to start somewhere. No matter how small the change is, it is still change. And every step further into the direction of progress gives my generation a little more hope for our future. One school sets the precedent for another, 2 schools set the precedent for a district. A district sets the precedent for a county. And a county sets the precedent for a state. It is a domino effect that must begin somewhere, and it has already begun in a small town in Minnesota. I am hoping that you will be open to consider change. 

Styrofoam vanished because someone was brave enough to call for it to be removed. I am hoping the same can happen with plastic. 

In the end, I am simply a kid. A junior at New Rochelle High School. But I will not rest, I will not be silent until I see change. 

Sincerely,

Anthony Baker 

On behalf of my humanity