Reading, writing, recycling
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Green Mountain Union High School students and teachers separated their home trash at the school on Friday for a class project. Here, they carry items to be recycled. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
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By Josh O'Gorman STAFF WRITER - Published: April 18, 2009
CHESTER — Students got elbow-deep in trash Friday to show what more the school could do to compost and recycle.
About 100 Green Mountain Union High School students sorted through bags of trash from the previous school day. Armed with rubber gloves and a good attitude, the students separated the garbage into three categories — recycling, compost and landfill trash.
All morning, students in Abby Mnookin's biology classes sorted bag after bag of garbage and found that students are tossing out a lot of material that could find a better home than the local landfill.
Last year, the school began a recycling program — collecting paper, cardboard, and bottles and cans — but students still found plenty of these items in the trash.
"Recycling is still pretty new to the school," Mnookin said. "Not every classroom has a bin and not all of the kids are in the habit of recycling yet. What we're hoping to show is what could be recycled."
Ben Hertford, a 15-year-old ninth-grader, noted the sheer volume of paper students had thrown away. Marjorie Munroe, a 14-year-old also in ninth grade, was surprised at the number of pens, pencils and reusable art supplies.
"We found markers that are the same ones you'd go look for in class and didn't find," she said.
Students sorted 73.5 pounds of trash, which was less than the amount expected by Charen Fegard with the Association of Vermont Recyclers, which 25 years ago was instrumental in starting curbside recycling pickup and today continues to educate people about better ways to dispose of their solid waste.
"Because it's the beginning of vacation and this activity had been promoted, they (the students) might have been more conscious," Fegard said.
Fegard will be overseeing similar activities at Long Trail School in Dorset on Wednesday and at Rutland High School in late May, "where I anticipate a much more impressive pile," she said.
Of the trash sorted by students, about 25 pounds, or about one-third, was truly garbage that should have been thrown away. They also found 3 pounds of bottles and cans, 13 pounds of paper, 4 pounds of milk cartons, 22 pounds of compost, 4 pounds of meat and 2.5 pounds of items that shouldn't have been tossed out at all, such as silverware and money.
The school has the means to recycle most of those items, and on Friday, Mary O'Brien, recycling coordinator for the Southern Windsor/Windham Counties Solid Waste Management District, brought the school a compost barrel to collect food waste.
O'Brien said that across the state, Vermonters are throwing away less garbage.
"I don't know if it's because they're buying less and are throwing away less packing or if they are recycling more," she said.
Students also weighed, but did not sort, 23 pounds of restroom trash, nearly all of it paper towels.
"So, if we were able to get hand dryers in the bathrooms, that would reduce a quarter of our waste," Mnookin said.
Students did not weigh the items students had actually put into the recycling bins, but Mnookin said it appears more recyclable items are being thrown away than recycled.
Still, Tyler Petrycki, a 15-year-old freshman who recycles and composts at home, was thrilled by his classmates' enthusiasm.
"The most astonishing thing was the participation," he said "Everyone was just down in it and not afraid to get dirty. It was great."
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
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