Hi! Welcome to Week Three!
At the beginning of every meeting, we celebrate our connection to nature and the Earth with a yoga pose and salutation, “Hello Sun! Hello Earth! Hello Rain! Hello Wind! Hello Ocean! Hello Wind! Hello Rain! Hello Earth! Hello Sun! Namaste.”

This week we will continue with poses that represent something associated with sea or ocean. Each member will choose an “Ocean Yoga” card and lead the pose!

Biodegradable vs. non-biodegradable
“Biodegradable” means a material that is able to degrade or break down. Examples of biodegradable materials are apple cores, bones, paper, flowers, serving utensils, plates made of corn products.

“Non-biodegradable” refers to materials that are not broken down by organisms. Examples of non-biodegradable materials are plastic, glass, polyester clothing items, and aluminum cans.

Things that are biodegradable are often made of organic materials, or things naturally occurring in our environment, not those synthetically produced in a lab. For instance, a banana peel is biodegradable and will take approximately 3 days to degrade, but a plastic bottle will take hundreds of years!

Guess how long it takes for the items on the list to the left to degrade in the environment (days, weeks, months, years). Check your guesses HERE!

Watch the video below to learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Trash accumulates in 5 ocean garbage patches, the largest one being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California. If left to circulate, the plastic will impact our ecosystems, health and economies. Solving it requires a combination of closing the source, and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean.

On June 3, 2013, 19-year-old Boyan Slat unveiled the results of the feasibillity study, indicating that we can likely clean our oceans. To read more about his project go HERE. 

To do our part, we will begin to collect plastic bags and create Plarn. Watch the video below to learn how to make plarn!