The Port Townsend High School Students for Sustainability have restarted a program begun by their predecessors in 2013, to help save both money and natural resources.

To avoid using plastic utensils, paper plates and food “boats,” the Students for Sustainability have been running a plate and silverware drive at PTHS during school hours this month to replace the reusable plates and silverware the previous Students for Sustainability had collected.

Junior Stella Jorgensen explained that many of the previously collected plates, forks and spoons had been lost or broken, and what began as a one-week collection drive became an ongoing event, as they were able to generate publicity through KPTZ 91.9 FM and parents’ social media word of mouth.

“No metal knives, though,” Jorgensen said.

Junior Emily Kilgore estimated that the Students for Sustainability had originally collected close to 1,000 plates and began the current drive with close to 200 plates.

With 350 students, Jorgensen was looking for a minimum of 400 plates, but was open to collecting as many as 600 or even 800 plates, so they could go a longer period of time before they needed to collect plates again.

Jorgensen and sophomore Jeanette Patric noted that the Students for Sustainability have also been working with the Port Townsend City Council and Jefferson County Council to coordinate a plastic straw ban.

In the meantime, community members have been encouraged to bring their plates, forks and spoons to the PTHS main office between 8:20 a.m. and 3 p.m. on school days.

Jorgensen cited research by previous Students for Sustainability, who were headed up by co-presidents Melanie Bakin and Sarah Marx, showing that the costs of waste pickup were $10.45 per day for paper plates and $2.13 per day for the food “boats.”