By Catherine Nash and Apryl Giraudon, Ms Staff Writers

 

This year Greenhill is launching a new plastic recycling program. Students will now be able to recycle their plastic water and sports bottles instead of pitching them into a trash can.

“I was tired of seeing all of the water bottles being thrown away. Collecting the bottles will be part of the Primers science, math and geography program, as well as help their fine motor skills when they take off all of the labels on the bottles.

They will have better social skills from answering the Primer extension line when someone on the campus calls to say that their bucket is full of bottles and is ready to be collected,” Primer teacher Janice Lamendola said.

All bottles have a number one on the bottom and must be washed out. There are collection boxes where bottles can be recycled in the Middle School by assistant head Kevin Foley’s office, as well as outside of the cafeteria and the gym.
Many grade levels around campus have heard the Primers promote their project with a song. The Primers will be learning many aspects about recycling, and the rest of the school will be able to contribute to this new exciting recycling program.

Other grades are contributing to the recycling efforts, as well. Fourth graders collect aluminum cans and have a homeroom competition to see which class can bring in the most cans.

Students must wash, crush, and count the cans before they bring them to school. At the end of the year, the profits can help the fourth grade adopt an endangered species.
The fifth grade’s community service project is to collect pull-tabs and ink jet cartridges.

“[The project] is to help raise money for the Ronald McDonald House,” fifth grader Lauren Butowsky said.

They are also taking ink jet cartridges to a recycling center where the fifth graders receive money, which they give to the Ronald McDonald House, a place for families of sick children to stay while children are receiving treatment.
The entire school is encouraged to take part, and collection boxes are located all around the Middle School.
The seventh grade has a recycling program where the students are using kitchen waste to make compost. Organic food matter is brought to school on compost days. The goal is to have every person in the seventh grade contribute to the class compost. While the seventh graders are turning and creating better compost, the pH and temperature of the compost is recorded. By learning to compost, the students are learning to reuse materials.

The eighth grade environmental project involves recycling all of the paper in the Middle School, Fine Arts, and Administration buildings every Friday. In the areas that they collect, they only fill two big bins with paper. That is only a fraction of the paper Greenhill uses.

All of these recycling projects have a positive impact on both the earth and on the students who take part in them.