Nicodemus Wilderness Project -- Global Registry of Apprentice Ecologists

Three hundred plates, three hundred cups, three hundred plastic utensils, and thirty two-liter bottles of soda used to go straight to the garbage in one day. I come from a very large family, and when we get together for parties, it is about seventy of us. Every party, we used to throw out about seven twenty liter bags of trash. This does not even include the boxes and wrapping paper from gifts. This wastefulness would go on every Christmas, birthday party, or any other family reunion.

Last New Years I noticed how wasteful my family and I were, so I made it my New Years resolution right then to do something about it. I started by making a mass email that I forwarded to people. In the email, I stated how much trash we throw out that can be recycled. I also wrote about the important of recycling and forwarded it throughout the year. I also convinced my family to switch from Styrofoam to paper plates and cups. Now at parties we have separate trash cans for everything.

Recycling is one of the most important and simplest ways to help our planet. I first became aware of the importance of recycling through my American Literature teacher my sophomore year. He told us it takes hundreds of years for certain materials, like Styrofoam, to disintegrate. He told us something that I will never forgetâ€”that although we do not think about it, trash does not disappear after we throw it away. It sits in a landfill for hundreds of years and much of that garbage could have been recycled.

This project , although small, was very successful. I received responses to my emails from many people I did not know, mostly from Chicago, but a few from different states. They told me that they had never realized how wasteful they were until my email. They also promised that they too would begin to recycle. My own family recycled about sixty twenty liter garbage bags in one year!

This project was very rewarding. It felt great knowing that I helped the environment. I am ready to continue this project in 2010. The email is ready to be sent out and this time I will make sure that it reaches more people all across the country. The lesson that I learned was that the internet is a great way to get a message out. The most important lesson was that although I do not have money to travel and complete a great project in a tropical rainforest, I was able to help the environment in my own way. There is no need for any fancy projects, Every small contribution makes a huge difference.