We planned a school cleanup and recycling awareness event to coincide with Earth Day activities worldwide. In our small community, the concept of recycling is rather new. Engaging our youth in recycling is a major element in making this program work. Our objective for this project was to clean up the school grounds while educating the students about the differences in the types of materials that can be recycled. We wanted to instill in the students a sense of good citizenship and pride for a clean environment.
We started working with a small team of students who designed and made a storyboard illustrating what could be recycled. We worked with this team plan the event, the prizes and the snacks. To invite and engage more kids to participate, we advertised through the Mountain View School Newsletter, through articles in the local paper, on the local radio station, on several Earth Day internet sites and on the Volunteer WV website.
On Earth Day we had 30 kids, 8 high school students, 1 teacher and 6 caring adults eager to work. The groups were divided into teams of adults and youth to collect debris in one of six different areas. After the collection, we rejoined as a group and did a waste stream study - we categorized the items according to material types and recyclability. As a reward for their hard work, the students received a healthy snack, tote bag and Project FLOW t-shirt and a Reduce, Reuse and Recycle pencil. We found that the information regarding the different types of plastic that can or cannot be recycled to be the most fascinating factor with the students. As a result of the students and the volunteers’ hard work the school grounds were clean and beautiful.
The kids had a GREAT time and loved their t-shirts. As a result, we now have the beginnings of youth “green teams” in our community. Just this week we were told of a group of high school kids forming a club called “The Green Angels”. They want to work on a countywide recycling program. We are also planning to use the storyboard and the Earth Day PowerPoint Presentation in the middle school classrooms to recruit participants for this summer’s camp.