Incremental step for a sustainable community

I am a high school junior. I live in Mountain View, California, and I am highly concerned about the ever-growing nemesis of plastic pollution and its impact on the natural environment. Since the summer of 2022, I have been raising awareness about plastic bag pollution. I have been campaigning outside the farmers market (on Sundays) with banners and placards for several weeks and have named my campaign––Sustainable Sundays. I also spoke with customers about plastic bag pollution and the use of reusable bags to carry produce.

To encourage them to bring their reusable produce bags, I even distributed free cloth produce bags funded with my birthday money. I also participated in the Mountain View harvest festival where I was given a free booth by the generous organizers.

During my conversation, people told me they want to avoid using plastic bags but forget their reusable produce bags, either at home or in the car. To address this issue, I have developed a free Android "Bag Reminder App" that reminds people to bring their reusable produce bags to the farmers market. This app is available at Google Play Store. Users can select their local farmers market. Based on their selection, the App will send two reminders. First, at a user-specified time before the start of the farmers market, if they are within 5 miles of the market location, and second when they are within 0.1 miles of the market. The App does not collect or store any user data.

I want to reach out to as many people as possible to maximize the impact of this effort.