recycling in schools

My school doesn't recycle. I have tried talking to the teachers and the principle, but they haven't helped at all. I asked the principle why not and he said that he didn't know...that's it. The is so much stuff that goes to waste and I don't understand how it would hurt anyone just to get a couple recycling bins in the school. I'm a little frustrated because I feel like I'm the only one who cares and no one is listening to me. Any advice?

 

I'm sure someone else will take up the opportunity to tell you why recycling is'nt as grand as you think it is, but I will say this. My school has recycling bins everywhere. Every other classroom as a bin for recycling paper. This would lead you to belive they actually recycle, but they don't. To them, the recycling bin is just another trash can(to the students and janitors alike). Most kids throw all their trash in the recycling bin, and when there is a bin for recyling that actually has paper products in it, the janitors just toss it all in with the regular trash. It's BS. There's nothing we can do about it cause we're kids, and we don't matter.

 

Go higher up than the principal. Take the issue to the district administration. You could also try the pta or write the local newpaper.

 

FIRST Rule of Underage Protesters: Win your Parent's first! Their VOTES will carry more weight than your none. Have them go to the higher-ups at the school.

 

My parents agree with me. They've always told me to stand up for what I believe in. So that's not a problem. They usually aren't involved with the stuff I do, but maybe I can get them to help me this time!

 

That was my point. Get people involved.

 

my high school had a "save club" who had recycling as a goal. if a school can have athletics, music programs, chess clubs, debate clubs, academic teams, drama clubs and so on maybe one way to encourage recycleing at school would be to gather other individuals that believe in helping with this issue. your school might be more apt to recycle if they don't have to do all the work.

 

I agree with that. But, then they want the money raised, to go back to the School. (I have NO problem with that!) Better Education for YOU guys!
Still, Get your parents to help though. PTA Etcetera...

 

You might try this; Start an "Eco-club". Put recycle bins out as a fund raiser. Let the school see how much money you raise.

 

Our recycling bins last year were always full of regular trash, and the regular trash was always full of huge chunks of paper. why don't we just throw books away

 

loveflower? Sounds like you guys need to throw the School Board away!

 

My school does have an environmental science teacher who might be willing to help me out a little... I think I might talk to him. That would be really cool if I could start a club. There are just a lot of really closed minded people where I live that aren't too willing to listen to anyone different. Most of their families work at the town paper mill and chemical plant, so not too many people seem to care about environmental issues.

 

How do you make money by putting recycling bins out?

At my high school, there was an environmental club. It was tiny, but the bins at our school were used for recycling, there wasn't usually a lot of trash in them. I remember it was the students in the club that went through and collected the bins from every room. Not sure what they did with it, cuz I didn't join nor did I ask. But there's an idea...rather than let the janitors screw it up, do it yourselves

 

I'm a cleaner at a public high school here in Australia. It's sickening how much paper they throw out I rescue large amounts of it to be recycled - but it shits me how they don't even bother to recycle it.

At the primary school, they recycle everything. All the office paper has it's own bin, and each classroom has a bin for paper, one for drink bottles/cans/cartons and one for rubbish.

If the primary school can do it, why can't the high school???

Over here you get 5c per drink carton that you take in to the recycling depot. There is a man that walks around after school picking up cartons, and he reckons he makes between $10-$20 a day for about 15 minutes' work. If only the school had it's own recycling bins, they could be making all that money themselves!!

I've spoken to teachers and other cleaners (as well as students) about it, but no-one wants to do anything. It seems the headmaster is very old-fashioned. The home ec (cooking) classes used to have a compost heap of all their scraps (they throw out between 1 & 2 garbage bins full of food a day) and grew their own veggies & herbs. The headmaster made them get rid of it because he considered it "unhygenic"!!!! What a load of crap. Even the preschool (0-5 y.o.) kids have a compost heap, with worms and all. Surely the advantages of learning to grow your own food outweighs the smell & flies.

So if you have a 'cash-a-can' type system over there, I'd recommend setting up bins for the cashables, and talking to people in the school about why they should chuck their recyclables in there instead of the rubbish bin. Stick weekly totals on the school noticeboard so everyone can see how much money's being raised. Think of a something cool to spend the money on, so that everyone will want to help.

Good luck!

 

teehee...i was on the Recycling Committee at my highschool. it rocked. I am sooo captain recycler-man. Talk to your principal, i'm sure they'd be willing to let you start something like this in your school. Put up posters and stuff, and have one night a week, after school, where everyone goes around and collects the bins, and sorts through them. Talk to teachers too, i'm sure a lot of them would be interested in helping you. I'm so captain enthusiasm when it comes to things like this...if you really want it done, you have to be willing to put in a little time and effort

We had like 30 people on our recycling committee, it was pretty rad!!

 

that's the stupidest thing ive ever heard, if you talk to people, let people know what's going on, not everyone is going to be as ignorant as you like to think. Even janitors....we had that problem too, they would just throw it all in the garbage.....After we let them know it was something we were serious about, they stopped. And if you have a small team of people who are willing to stay one night out of the week to sort through the bins, it's not so bad and well worth the time. Optimism here children, come on!!!!!!!!

 

If there is a lot of trash in the recycle bins, put pieces of cardboard over the bins with a can sized hole cut out of the center.

 

our school has a 'green' club. What they do is hand out recycling BAGS to teachers who want them and are going to keep track of what students are putting in them. It works out well that way.

 

my school has special containers to put cans and bottles in, they are labeled recycle. you could see if youre local waste management facility would be willing to donate some of those. the majority of my school is very careful to put their cans and bottles in these containers, but, of course, there are unfortunatly those who dont care. but im sure you are not the only kid in your school that wants to recycle
good luck

 

I did it. Yay! I talked to the environmental science teacher at my school and he's gonna call some people in the city near mine to help set it up. I'm so happy that he's helping me. We're gonna do it for bottles and cans too. I'm really excited! Once he straightens out a few things he's gonna talk my principal (he'll actually listen to a teacher... hopefully).