By: Echo Rogers
Young Democrats are taking the recycling policy at HHS in a new direction.
This club has created a recycling program. They hope to build awareness of their program to the entire school community. Since the beginning of the school year, co-presidents Kate Zurlo and Matt Brier have met after school to discuss how to create an effective recycling program.
“We knew the school didn’t have a strong recycling program,” Zurlo said. On top of this, she said, the students tended to disregard it. She believes this is a problem. Already, she and Brier have met with the principal and requested more recycling bins in the lunchroom. Since then, more have been added. Going further, they plan to make a video for a Trojan Tip and conduct a presentation for the teachers.
Even though the club has met only twice, Zurlo said a lot of Young Democrats are eager to pitch in. Soon, they are hoping, their video will be approved and played for the school. As for the teachers, Zurlo and Briar will attend a faculty meeting on November 11, 2015 where they will give a presentation to the teachers about their plan.
Nikki Fisher, a teacher at HHS, admitted she didn’t even know what the official recycling policy is at our school. She said the teachers aren’t being told where to put paper, bottles, and cans. She isn’t the only one who doesn’t know about the policy. 100% of students in a survey collected at HHS admitted to not knowing the recycling policy. This survey was conducted between 18 students on October 15, 2015 in a World History class.
However, students at HHS do believe it is a problem. In the survey, two-thirds of the students claimed recycling was an issue. About half of those surveyed students, though, believe the school doesn’t recycle at all. Young Democrats is hoping to change this.
As far as the actual recycling policy at HHS, custodian Brain Matthews explained how it works. The blue recycling bins are only for paper, plastic, and glass bottles. He said if anything else is thrown into the bins, no recycling occurs. They have to throw all of it away. They don’t have the time to sort through it.
“We recycle,” Matthews said, “but everyone has to play their part.”
Young Democrats wants to spearhead awareness so everyone in the school knows how to play their part. With the Trojan Tip and the presentation, they want to further explain how students and teachers can effectively recycle. As one student said in their survey, “people are not educated enough on it.” This club plans on changing that.
Zurlo said, “Earth is not a renewable source. As of now, we only have one.” With only one Earth, she explained, the importance of recycling and keeping our planet clean can’t be emphasized enough. “We need to start using what we have to our advantage. Recycling is important,” Zurlo said.
