Oct 30 - Enviro Education Curriculum Finalized, Sans Pro-Plastic Language

Parents can rest easy that their children will not receive pro-plastic messages influenced by industry during their environmental school lessons.

Last Friday, the California Environmental Protection Agency finalized its revision to a school curriculum. The environmental curriculum, created under a 2003 state law, was at the center of much debate when it came to light that comments from the American Chemistry Council were inserted directly into a revision of the teacher's manual. Read the blog from August 2011.

This resulted in a public outcry from environmentalists and parents, and eventually led to an investigation and revision of the curriculum.

The revisions now remove a section titled "Advantages of Plastic Shopping Bags" and reword a test question with a similar message. CAW is pleased to see that the 12% recycling rate of plastic grocery bags was also corrected in the teacher's edition.

Our Executive Director, Mark Murray, had previously commented that "a better and more accurate figure - one that looks only at plastic shopping bags - is from the state, which in 2009 reported a 3 percent recycling rate."

Read more on the finalized revisions on the California Watch.