After starting the school year off with only aluminum recycling due to their budget, the Green Team has achieved their goal of getting a paper recycling system for the school set up, too.
“We said, ‘the other school has paper recycling, why don’t we,’ so administration helped us pay for paper recycling and made it even,” junior member Chuck Morgan said.
Earlier this year, the club had issues installing a paper recycling program due to budgeting issues, but they are collaborating with Hillside Solutions to make it work. So far, they have created customized recycling bins and bought a paper-only recycling dumpster.
“I called the director of Hillside Solutions [Brent Campton] and said, ‘Here’s where we are, here’s what we’ve done, and here’s where we want to be,’” president Miranda Menosuek said. “It’s all baby steps: we start with aluminum, then go to paper, and he recommended us starting composting.”
While only some teachers have received paper recycling bins so far, the club started collecting on Nov. 21. They will deliver paper recycling boxes to rooms that don’t have them within the coming week. Rooms will have an aluminum recycling box and a paper recycling box, as they will end up in different places, although Green Team collects both on the same day.
“We will come around and collect the paper recycling, and then we have a small dumpster designated solely for paper products outside with the other two dumpsters,” sponsor Sierra Arnold said. “Then Hillside Solutions comes and picks it up.”
In the future, the club plans to start composting to supply fertilizer to the courtyard outside might be made, but for now, the Green Team is happy for this little victory.
“It’s definitely a possibility [composting], but it costs more money and labor for the community and club,” Menosuek said. “So far though, we’ve done great work for the school by starting paper recycling.”
