It is very very common, especially among teens and young adults, to throw things away that could easily be reused. Reusing things like mason jars and plastic bags could reduce one's carbon footprint by an exponential amount. The United States Environmental Protection Agency provides suggestions on its website about how to cut down on waste. For schools and students, they offer advice such as to buy recycled school supplies and to take only what you know you need from the cafeteria. Bishop O'Dowd has replaced all of the plastic utensils in their cafeteria with compostable wooden ones. This cuts down every day on the waste that was produced in previous years by plastic utensils. Furthermore, if every school is able to do small things like use compostable utensils the entire country's CO2 output could b drastically lowered. 
https://www.epa.gov/recycle/reducing-wa … for%20Home

I agree with this and believe that even though it may seem unlikely that we would make a big difference by small changes, but even the use of mason jars and other items could help the environment a lot. Bishop O'Dowd is also a very healthy and environmentally aware school.