T.H.E. Club spearheads recycling venture
April 3, 2008
By: Min Qiao <mqiao@hilite.org>
With the increasing environmental problems as a result of human wastes, The Healthy Environment (T.H.E.) Club here has taken the initiative to begin the CHS Paper Recycling Program.
This school has partnered with Abitibi Paper Retriever to recycle the paper throughout the year. Once the paper in put in the bin, Abitibi collects the paper and recycles it to make new newspaper.
According to George Ohmer, sponsor of The Healthy Environment Club and AP Environment and genetics teacher here, the mantra of the club is primarily to increase awareness in things that can be done to help the environment, like recycling. Part of the purpose of the club is discussing and carrying out some their plans. For now, their job is to take over recycling for the school.
Rachel Johnson, member of The Healthy Environment Club and junior, said that she has always been interested in helping the environment, especially when she sees the loads of paper that is thrown away at the end of the year when students are cleaning out their lockers.
“I really wanted to do something about (the tons of trash being thrown away,” Johnson said. “When I heard on the announcements that there was a club for it, I knew I had to be a part of it.”
“There was a Paper Recycling Club last year, but that club is now defunct,” Ohmer said.
Ohmer said that The Healthy Environment Club have decided to take over where the Paper Recycling Club has left off.
“There should be blue bins in place in most classrooms and the ones that don’t have them, we are going to replace them,” Ohmer said.“We are going to be doing paper recycling in classrooms and also we are going to start a program in the main cafeteria for plastic recycling, especially for plastic bottles”
Marc Fishman, co-president of The Healthy Environment Club and senior, said that they were able to receive a grant from the Indiana Department of Education. This grant of approximately $250,000 is specifically for purchasing any type of materials needed for paper recycling.
“We have bought about 13 big recycling bins with wheels,” Fishman said. “The plan is to station those in every department office. In addition, there are those recycling bins in each classroom.”
Fishman said that all of the recycled material will go into a green and yellow bin, similar to a dumpster, located in the parking lot by the Kids’ Corner playground.
“The cool thing is that we get paid for recycling,” Fishman said. “The more paper we have to recycle, the more the company pays us.”
The idea of doing a recycling program like this had been in the talks within The Healthy Environment Club for a while.
“(Katie) Overbeck was the one in charge of Paper Recycling Club last year and she was really the one who was able to access the money from the grant and help us plan how to execute this,” Fishman said.
Fishman also said that teachers can send their recycled trash to the blue bins in the department offices and once the bins in the offices get full, members of The Healthy Environment Club, as well as House members, will roll those bins out to the parking lot to get the trash into the big dumpster.
“This school produces a lot of paper and one of the benefits would be that not only do we get paid for this, we are also setting a green example for other schools,” Fishman said. “I am really hoping that this program will last.”
In order to get students and staff more involved in this program, Fishman said that it will be heavily publicized. He said that they plan to have a flyer in every classroom explaining about the program.
“We are also going to be decorating all the bins to make it more noticeable,” Johnson said. “It’s not like people don’t care about the environment. Most of the time, they just don’t notice the recycling bins or it’s too much effort for them to recycle something. This way, the bins would be more noticeable and more students would recycle.”
In addition, members of the club will be appearing on the announcements every time they get ready to roll the blue bins out to the dumpster so that anyone can help out.
“We’ve ordered our bins and we are just waiting for them to come in,” Fishman said. “Once they come in, we can get started with the recycling.”
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