Students, primarily members of the Science Club and the football team, handle collection of the materials. Paper containers are placed in each classroom and emptied weekly into a Paper Retriever dumpster, which the Abitibi Company services. Over the past two years, the school has had bins for collecting plastic and aluminum in public spaces.
In early September, Rumpke is scheduled to provide classroom containers for plastic, cardboard and aluminum.
For the past two years, Taylor personally drove a school trailer to the Materials Recovery Facility in Fairborn for recycling of the plastic and aluminum. The program has been so successful that Rumpke has placed two recycling bins at the school and plans to remove one of the school’s three trash dumpsters. Taylor notes that this chance will save money for the school district.
Just as important as the increase in recycling tonnage has been the shift in students’ attitudes.
“Recycling bins in the school have also led to a large shift in student behavior, by allowing them to consider the final destination for their daily trash. Students regularly come to me and let me know when a bin is full, or with suggestions on where new recycling bins should be located,” Taylor said in a report on the project.
Mini-grants of up to $500 are available to any Clark County school for a recycling program, a field trip or educational project related to waste management or other related project. For information, call Steve Schlather at 521-2022 or go to www.32TRASH.org and click on “Schools.”
Schlather is Program Coordinator for the Clark County Waste Management District.
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