Sushi goes eco-friendly

BY MICHELLE COOKE

Cameron Watson has proven that big things really do come in small packages.

The 11-year-old made it his mission to change the containers that his school’s sushi is delivered in.

The Churchill Park School student was frustrated that the sushi came in plastic packaging which worked against the school’s environmental focus.

"It just doesn’t look right to see an enviroschool with plastic packaging," he says.

So he set out with a plan to find an alternative and now has Cecil Sushi in St Heliers delivering his classmates’ lunches in corn starch boxes instead.

With the switch from non-recyclable plastic to corn starch, which can be recycled or composted, Cameron is making a difference, one sushi box at a time.

"The fact that he’s been motivated by his environment has given him the power to go off and do something real – and help the whole school," says environment teacher Catherine Shipton.

She says children Cameron’s age often come up with better ideas than adults and "we just need to let them run with it".

Cameron says his mum encouraged him to start his investigation and supported him throughout the project.

The year 7 student researched packaging on the internet and discovered local company KiwiGreenPak.

The company sent him a range of products and he decided the corn starch box was the best because it was food safe and big enough for up to eight pieces of sushi.

His fellow students are thrilled with the change.

"Quite a lot of them said I had done a seriously good job, well done. I was pretty proud of myself and my mum was pleased as well," he says.

Cecil Sushi’s Vivian Jung says while the shop is happy to deliver 100 to 200 of these packages to the school each Friday, it is too time consuming to change all of the packages. She says while it’s good for the environment, it’s more expensive, takes too long to put together and once it is put together you can’t see what’s inside.

The school’s next mission is to change the packaging of its other take-out lunch, Subway.

- © Fairfax NZ News