Sanford47
Registered: December 2011
City/Town/Province: Surprise
Posts: 1
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My inner ecologist was sparked by a project in my second year of National Junior Honor Society, in eighth grade. I was given the task of drafting the recycling schedule. Who would promote the idea to each grade level and classroom? Who would put the bins on the curb? Who would bring them back into the classrooms? I organized each member into groups, and assigned them tasks on rotation. Upon further individual research into recycling, I found that just one school that recycles had a huge impact on the community and environment. The recycling plant earns more money as the amount of waste increases, and the environment’s resources are spared to due to the reuse of materials. However, when I advanced to high school, I was surprised to see that all potential recyclables were being thrown away into the wastebasket. Inspired to change the scene, I took the matter up to Teen Advisory Board.
As part of the city, Teen Advisory Board provides the departments, mainly recreation, with ideas of changes teens would like to see on a monthly basis. Keeping in mind the requirement of a community service project to maintain membership in this group, I gathered other teen leaders to create a group called the Green Team in September of 2011. We named our cause Project Green, in reference to the common cliché “go green”. With a diversity of high schools represented within the group, we worked together to establish recycling regimens at each city high school through the creation of “Green Clubs”, or ecology clubs. These clubs would manage the recycling system, and maintain a relationship with the city’s waste management contact. After seeing that the high schools were well on their way, the Green Team began to work with other elementary schools, to establish recycling systems there. With the help of the city, there are now only four schools (two elementary schools and two high schools) that are yet to have recycling regimens.
The significance of Project Green was to generate environmental awareness within the community. With the option of recycling, people become more self-conscious about what they thrown away. By reusing materials, the Earth’s natural resources are preserved. Resource conservation is essential because then the natural habitats will also be preserved, and our children will have a chance to see the same plants and animals that we see today.
Project Green has helped benefit the community and environment. Since more students recycle, more solid waste is added to the community’s recycling plant. As the amount of solid waste increases, the profit the plant receives also rises. Therefore, the city’s economy indirectly benefits from the recyclables. Additionally, as companies purchase solid waste for reuse, natural resources are conserved. The environment is spared, and Mother Nature is pleased.
Throughout the duration of Project Green, I have experienced the impacts of recycling on the environment by participating in both the gathering process, and witnessing what occurs in a recycling plant. With the satisfaction of establishing recycling regimens at the school level, I would like to step it up and introduce the same idea, recycling, to local businesses and offices. This would bring another increase of recyclables to the plant, and again, put ease on the environment. To put the idea on the table, I plan to participate in the city’s annual Green Fair, coming up in March. The Green Team and I would (first) get permission to hold a booth at the fair. There, we would conduct interactive games for the children, focusing around what can be recycled, and what cannot. And to reach out to the adults, I plan to prepare brochures regarding recyclable materials, as well as information about how to establish a recycling system in the workplace. With dutiful preparation and effective delivery, several workplaces should have recycling bins in no time. Soon enough, every home and public building will be equipped with several recycling bins. Initiate Project Green: Level: Workplace.
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