Did you know that if all Americans recycle their newspaper, about 250,000,000 trees would be saved every year? That’s a lot of trees! So why don’t people actually recycle? Well, the main reason is that many Americans do not know how and what to recycle. This is an issue that is currently being attacked in Mrs. Antico’s social justice classes. Students are working to implement recycling measures at AOSE. 

To find more information about recycling measures at AOSE, students interviewed Mrs. Burek, Mrs. Corvo, Mr. Mayor and Mrs. Kotolous. Through these interviews, students found that AOSE does have recycling programs in place and that bins are spaced around the school. While these bins exist, their items are often contaminated because people place garbage in them, preventing a whole group of items from being recycled. As students, it is our job to make sure that only recyclables are placed in the blue recycling bins. A huge part of recycling is personal awareness and decision making; recycling can not be forced onto a person. It’s up to each and every individual person to choose to save the environment. 

Additionally, Mrs. Antico’s social justice classes have come up with their own ideas to implement recycling at AOSE. One of these ideas is eco-friendly lunch utensils: Would it be possible for all students to bring in their own utensils? Would it be possible to have washable utensils in the cafeteria? These are questions to figure out in the future. Utensils are currently provided by the Parkhurst dining program, so further exploration is needed to see if this idea is truly possible.

So what could you do, as a student, to save the environment? The answer is simple: be aware of what you throw away. If you don’t know what to recycle, look at the posters placed around the school, or look up what you can on the internet. Be sure to clean recyclable items before you place them in the recycling bin. You can also bring in reusable utensils and water bottles to save the environment. Your one small step can play a huge role in protecting and conserving the wonderful environment that we live in.

For further information:

• Recycling Rules: https://www.wm.com/us/en/recycle-right/recycling-101
• Recycling Facts: https://www.usi.edu/recycle/paper-recycling-facts/