Recycling at Weatherstone Elementary School

While visiting Weatherstone Elementary school, we all noticed that the classrooms had

two bins, this is usually a good sign, but one bin was for garbage and the other bin was for ​paper

only​. This was the same throughout the school, even in the cafeteria. There was no place to

recycle plastic bottles, plastic containers, cans, cardboard, etc. That means all of the schools

recyclables are being thrown in the trash. With a school of 846 students this is a lot of

recyclables being thrown away. “​The average child generates approximately 67 pounds of

discarded school packaging waste every year​.”(​Environmental Topics to Teach: Recycling,

2017) That means the students of Weatherstone alone create 56,682 pounds of discarded waste

each year. Weatherstone Elementary has the opportunity to grow as a school and make an impact

on their community by recycling.

The issue of only recycling paper is that their recyclables are being thrown away into the

trash. These recyclables are able to be reused with the technology created. Instead of this

happening, their recyclables are being thrown into landfills. These landfills are land full of trash

and the trash decomposes over many years. Landfills are harming our land, the less trash sent to

landfills the better for our environment. decreasing the amount of waste from Weatherstone

would make a difference in the landfills.

Students at Weatherstone need to be educated on recycling. “​Encouraging recycling

habits in young students provides them the skills and expectations that our society needs to

cultivate for sustainability.” (Environmental Topics to Teach: Recycling, 2017) Through the
little instruction time we had with the students, they were interested in recycling and encouraged

to take action. The students want to make a positive impact on their school.

Action Plan

Week 1

1. Teach a lesson on environmentalism

a. Teach a lesson on what it means to preserve the Earth’s environment. Talk about the

threats posed by pollution and how recycling can help minimize the amount of trash we

produce

b. Show video on pacific island dump and video on the Sweedish inventor who created an

entire machine in order to clean the pacific island dump.

c. “Fun” facts: the approximate length of time it takes for certain items to decompose in a

landfill

i. Aluminum soda can: 500 years

 ii. Plastic bottles: 450 years

iii. Plastic bags: 1,000 years

iv. Glass bottles: 1,000,000 years

v. Paper doesn’t take as long to decompose, but paper is made out of trees-- average

person in the United States uses 7 trees worth of paper products per year. That’s

about 2,000,000,000 trees per year of paper products in the United States. Trees

provide oxygen and are important for sustaining life.

2. Kid-friendly tips on recycling/reusing items

a. As a class, brainstorm list of ways they can help the environment

i. Reduce the amount of products you buy, use and throw away

ii. Set up a recycling bin. Your home should be equipped with recycling bins

throughout the house. Make it easy to separate recyclables from other trash.

iii. Recycle as many cans, bottles, books, metal, aluminum, glass, newspapers and

electronics you can

iv. Reuse things as much as you can – turn that old t-shirt into a car rag!

v. Shut off the water when brushing your teeth

vi. Instead of paper napkins, use a washcloth for each member of the family. Keep

the washcloths in a drawer for the week and use them at each meal. Wash them

as needed. This can encourage the whole family to stop buying disposable paper

products altogether.

vii. Unplug chargers for your cell phone when not using it

viii. Put your PC to sleep instead of leaving it running with the screen on

ix. Turn off lights you are not using

 3. Take students on a field trip of a recycling center

a. Virtual tour of the Sonoco Recycling MRF in Raleigh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HowgOLdv3pk&feature=youtu.be

b. OR field trip to the Sonoco MRF:

http://www.wakegov.com/recycling/outreach/Pages/mrf.aspx

4. Have the students write questions that they can ask the specialists

a. Have students write questions for each of the individuals involved in the recycling

process.

5. Make arrangements so that the proper personnel are available to give answer questions

about the recycling process.

a. The preferable method would be to have the personnel come to the skill and give a brief

demonstration about what they do. They would then answer questions that the students

have written in advance. However, this can also be done through a skype call.

6. Have the student gather information from all sources

a. Have students interview the proper personnel (recycling specialist, teacher, principal,

custodian staff). They should then be given some time to research about the recycling

process online or through literature in the classroom library and school library.

Week 2

7. Have the students brainstorm ideas for an action plan in order to recycle all of the plastic in

their classroom.

a. Have students brainstorm ideas regarding how they can set up a system in order to

recycle all of the plastic materials the school has.

 8. Have the students brainstorm and design an action plan in order for the entire school to

recycle their plastic materials.

a. Students should design a process in which the entire school can recycle all of their

plastic.

9. Have the students implement their action plan

a. We want the students to test their action plan and see if it works.

10. Have the students modify their action plan if they can see changes that can be made in

order to improve their design.

a. After implementing their action plan they should make observations about how their

design can improve. They should also start to think about how this action plan can be

implemented throughout the entire school

Week 3

11. Have the students brainstorm a way to scale their action plan to the entire school.

a. Students should brainstorm a way for their individual action plan to be scaled throughout

the entire school. They should use what they have learned in the previous week in order

to make adjustments for the school wide plan.

12. Create an action plan for the entire school

a. Students should use the ideas that they have brainstormed in the previous session in order

to create a detailed action plan that describes how the entire school will implement and

benefit from their plan.

13. Have the students create a presentation in order to convince administrators to implement

their plan.
 a. All of the students should be able to contribute by either presenting or by creating content

for the presentation. They should also practice the presentation before they present it to

the proper administrator.

14. Have the students pitch the plan to the proper administrators

a. The proper administrator should come into class in order to listen and critique the work

the students have done. The students should take note on the administrators grievances in

order to be able to correct them.

15. Have the students modify their social action plan in order to alleviate the grievances that

the administrator proposed.

a. Students should use the information that the administrator gave them and modify their

action plan in order to make sure all parties are happy with the final product.

16. Implement the action plan school wide and track how much plastic material each grade has

contributed. At the end of the year announce which grade has contributed the most to

recycling effort.

a. Throughout the year, staff members should count how many bags of plastic recycling

each grade has. At the end of the year a prize or bragging rights should be awarded to the

grade that has recycled the most plastic

What resources exist in your school/community, and what resources will you need?

- Weatherstone elementary only has two types of waste bins: paper recycling and regular

waste. We have noticed in our time spent at the school that students are being accustomed

to throwing away cans, bottles, and other recycled materials into the landfill waste bins.

Therefore, we must educate our students on how to throw away all types of materials so

we can ensure the success of our future planet.

- We will need universal education about the waste bins in all classrooms in the k-5 school.

There can be a universal powerpoint used to describe the new bins being entered into the

classroom and what types of trash can be thrown where. Furthermore, we can also create

signs that are posted above all bins that list what materials can be thrown away where!

- We will need the addition of the 3 bins below!

What are your desired outcomes that would support social change?

- Utilizing strength-based language throughout the school when it comes to holding others

and ourselves accountable, as well as using the proper language when describing how we

should be throwing away our certain materials.

- Teaching empathy is a major aspect of our social action plan. This is because empathy for

others and our planet is the driving force behind why we want to recycle. When we are

able to teach our students to have empathy for our planet, we will better be able to teach

them the life-long lesson of being smart when it comes to what kind of choices we are

making when we throw away our trash.

- Teaching compassion is also a great way to support our desired outcomes for this social

action plan. Compassion is a great force to drive teaching environmentalism as well as

making the right choices when it comes to throwing away our trash. When we are able to

teach compassion with our young students when it comes to recycling, landfill, and

compost: we can instill the life-long lesson of making the right choices and treating our

Earth better.

What were the results of you beginning to implement your social action plan?

- We began to implement our social action plan by educating our students first on what it

means to be kind to our environment. We asked our students questions such as: where

does all the trash we throw away go? What does recycling mean? What are some
 materials you can think of that are recycled? How can we make sure we are making the

right choices when it comes to throwing away our trash?

- We were really surprised by the answers we received, many students have received little

to no education when it comes to waste and recycling.

- Starting with educating our students was the most important step in the process of our

action plan!

- We also began to talk about what are some things that students throw away almost daily

at school? We found that many students were throwing away plastic water bottles, paper,

plastic, and cans into the landfill waste bin. We wanted to talk about how these types of

materials are able to be recycled and therefore rescued one day rather than be forever left

to sit in a landfill.

- Our next steps in this process will be to communicate to administration and Wake County

to start implementing multiple waste bins within all classrooms.

Examples of materials in Weatherstone that are being reused and recycled!

- The kids recycled items into the STEM baskets in their teacher’s room. These students

are learning how we can use recycled materials to create new things! A great life long

lesson on how to reuse and recycle all materials. They use these materials to build

projects during fun Friday, indoor recess and other assignments that require building
What are your future steps and/or changes to your social action plan?

- We want to have reusing and recycling become a part of the classroom culture!

Therefore, we must teach all of our students to think about: how can I reuse this material

rather than immediately thinking about throwing it away. This will take time and lots of

reinforcement to make sure that our students are always thinking in this way. As their

teachers, it would be very beneficial to have a recycling station in the classroom where

old materials can be stored and therefore used later during another activity or creative

free time!
 Resources

Ecology Center. (2017) Environmental Topics to Teach: Recycling. Retrieved from

https://www.ecocenter.org/environmental-topics-teach-recycling

Lober, D. (2019, October 15). Kids Super Guide on How to Recycle. Retrieved from

https://www.reusethisbag.com/articles/kids-guide-to-recycling/.