4H Essay Contest
Sponsored by:
Grades 6-8
KEEP SEVIER BEAUTIFUL
Your essay is due at your February 4-H meeting.
On your essay include your name, address, grade, school
and the name of your teacher.
Winning essays will be announced on April 4, 2017.
INSTRUCTIONS
After reading “Art for Ocean Animals”, “Keep Sevier Beautiful: Litter Hurts” and “Cigarette Litter” write an
informative essay in which you compare and contrast the authors’ views on litter. Include information
from the texts to write about the subject knowledgeably. Use details from all passages to help you write
your essay. Also, remember to use correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when
writing your essay.
Art for Ocean Animals
by Elise Jonas-Delson
What do you do when you see litter on the beach? You pick it up, of course. But artist Angela Haseltine
Pozzi doesn’t throw it away. She uses the trash to create giant sculptures of marine animals. The project is
called Washed Ashore and its goal is to raise awareness about the effects of littering on ocean animals.
“The first thing you need to do is get people’s attention,” Pozzi told TIME For Kids, “Giant animals tend to do
this very well.”
Pozzi started Washed Ashore when she noticed plastics on the beaches in Oregon, where she lives.
Plastic doesn’t break down and become absorbed by the environment. Instead, sunlight breaks it down
into pieces about the size of plankton, which are tiny organisms that float in the sea. These tiny pieces of
plastic enter the food chain. Sea animals eat them and end up dying. Pozzi always loved the ocean and
the animals in it, and she wanted to do something to help both.
Sea Change
One of Angela’s sculptures is a turtle. The turtle’s head is an old garbage can lid. There is netting around
it to show that turtles are getting caught in these nets.
Another sculpture, called Fish Bite Fish, is shaped like a fish and made out of little bits of plastic that contain
tooth and claw marks from the fish and crabs that tried to devour the plastic. “We get so many pieces of
plastic like this, I’m on my third Fish bite Fish sculpture,” says Pozzi.
The Sea Star figure is made of glass and plastic bottles, some of which are from the Beijing Olympics of
2008. The bottles started landing on the beaches in Oregon in 2010, and they still are arriving. The Sea
Star acts as a musical instrument. You put water in the bottles and hit them to make music.
A Helping Hand
Pozzi doesn’t collect all the trash by herself. When people spot litter on beaches, they drop it off at Artula
Institute for Arts and Environmental Education, in Bandon, Oregon. Then Angela and her volunteers begin
the process of turning the waste into art. Everything used for the sculptures is found on the beach, except
for the framework and the materials used to connect the litter together.
Who does Pozzi believe can save marine animals? “Kids have a lot of power.” she told TIME For Kids.
“They are the ones that can make things happen. I really believe it.”
Keep Sevier Beautiful: Litter Hurts!
Keep Sevier Beautiful motivates and educates Sevier County residents and guest to take greater
responsibility for improving our community’s environment. Keep Sevier Beautiful encourages residents and
guest to not litter. Reducing litter preserves the beauty of our community and the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park.
Unfortunately, many residents and guest litter cigarette butts among other items. Cigarette butts are the
most littered item in the county and they are difficult to pick up. During Keep Sevier Beautiful Roads and
Rivers Day Clean Ups, volunteers are encouraged to use gloves and litter grabbers to protect them from
sharp items and/or items that carry germs. Many people don’t think of cigarette butts as litter, but when not
properly disposed they are litter! Cigarettes are now made with small pieces of plastic in the filters and if
birds and other animals try to eat the cigarette butt it can harm them. Sharing the importance of not
littering anything, makes a huge difference to our environment, the safety of animals and humans and helps
to keep Sevier Beautiful.
Through displays at local events and educational programs with Sevier County students, Keep Sevier
Beautiful is educating and engaging residents and businesses on litter prevention and its effect on Sevier
County and its beauty. Keep Sevier Beautiful hopes to increase awareness and decrease litter rates in
Sevier County. Please encourage everyone to dispose of their litter properly…even cigarette butts!
Cigarette Litter
by BoatUS Foundation
Boaters are keeping their butts out of the water-and we’re not talking about the kind in swim trunks. In just
the past four years the BoatUS Foundation has helped nearly 200 marinas around the country tackle the
problem of cigarette litter.
The program is a partnership with Keep America Beautiful, a nationwide non-profit organization that
encourages individuals to take greater responsibility for improving the environment in their local community.
With funding from Phillip Morris USA – an Altria Company, RAI Services Company and Santa Fe Natural
Tobacco Company, Keep America Beautiful provides each marina with a $500 cash grant to purchase the
cigarette ash receptacles and signage and a supply of portable ashtrays for use on boats. Marinas are
asked to install the receptacles, distribute the portable ashtrays, and educate their customers about the
importance of proper disposal.
Many assume cigarette butts break down over time. However, most cigarette filters are made from a
plastic-like material, cellulose acetate. When tossed overboard or washed into storm drains, creeks and
waterways this material can last for decades harming fish and other wildlife.
Marina operators also like the program because it keeps their grounds clean, making the marina more
attractive. Once the butt receptacles are in place, customers embrace the program. We had some
participating marinas say that the amount of cigarette butts is now almost nonexistent, which helps their
business and the environment.
Participants in last year’s cigarette litter prevention program achieved an amazing 50% average reduction in
the amount of cigarette litter, which ultimately would have ended up in the water.