Recycling Project

It is essential to spread the word about recycling around schools to save our environment. Students should be taught the right way to recycle in general and even the plastic bottles that the school vending machines sell. Plastic can take over 1,000 years to decompose, so it is very important to get the plastic into the recycling bins. The problem with this is that not enough students are aware of all the bad effects on the environment when each person does not recycle the things that are needed to be. They typically don’t understand what can and cannot be recycled. When students received paper for their daily assignments, most of those papers do not make it into the recycling cans. Just one stack of papers or newspapers about 3 feet high can save one whole tree, that can make a huge difference when it comes to recycling papers received for school purposes.

          After interviewing a few kids at the school, it has come to attention that students at New Ulm High School are well aware of all of the recycling bins. Even though they are aware of them, they all came back with the same answer that they do not use them at school.

“I am aware of the recycling bins but I don’t ever use them,” Senior Keagan Schiro said.

They never really see anyone use them, and if people do, they are using them incorrectly. After going around the school to look at the garbage and recycling bins, there were many recyclable items placed in the garbage bins around the school. Even after looking in recycling bins, there were products that did not belong in there. The picture to the right shows a picture of a garbage bin in the science hallway that has a couple of recyclable items that could have been placed in the recycling bin right beside it.

          Overall, the school could use some help to encourage students to recycle more often than they do; in order to do that, everyone needs to take part in the process because every item recycled leads to a better environment. The majority said that if students had more knowledge of recycling and the effects on the earth, more students would participate in recycling. When asked, some students think this is a way the school could promote recycling more.

 Junior Abby Harris stated schools could promote recycling “by putting up signs and teaching people about how recycling affects the environment.”

After talking to a couple of students, the best way to promote recycling around the school is to put up posters in different areas and even have teachers touch on the subject during class. It could be very beneficial to our environment, and there is always room for improvement when it comes down to it.