School Recycling

Mr. Sherwood and the Brighton High School administration,

Recycling is a major concern within the Brighton community. For the past year, the elimination

of recycling bins has caused frustration amongst students and teachers. Even though recycling

bins have been reintroduced into classrooms, they are not being used correctly. By teaching

students and teachers how to properly recycle, we can reduce the amount of paper and recyclable

materials that enter the landfills. “Printing and writing paper is the single largest component of

wastes landfilled and incinerated, making up nearly 15 percent of the nation's garbage stream”

(Ruben). The excessive amount of paper that ends up in Brighton High’s dumpsters should be

recycled which allows for them to be reused in the future. “An average American school child

discards school lunch packages, it results in about 67 pounds of waste annually” (“Digging

Through School Waste Composition”). This amount of waste can be drastically reduced by

implementing proper recycling habits at our school.

We propose that the school addresses the concern in a Bengal News video and inform teachers

on how and when to dispose of the recyclables. We think that the most effective way to put our

plan into action is to ensure that each classroom in our school has a recycling bin that is labeled

paper only. This way we can make certain that the recycling bins will not be contaminated and

will not cost the school any fees while still recycling something. When the bins fill, the teachers

can send a student during flex to empty the bin in the outside recycling drop off. This way it will

not be interfering with any student’s or teacher’s learning and teaching time.
We believe that by starting with recycling just paper, it will start a positive habit of students

trying to better our community. “By instilling a sense of environmental awareness in pupils, the

education industry can inspire children to get involved in other environmentally friendly

practices'' (Carter). The simple act of informing our school of how to recycle and reduce waste

will have a significant impact in our community.

I hope you deeply take into consideration our concern.

Sincerely,

Students who want to make change

Laila Aruscavage, Hannah Larson, Kace Gurr

 Works Cited

Carter, Anna. “Recycling in Schools | Guidance on Reducing Waste.” High Speed Training, 9

March 2020, https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/reducing-waste-in-schools/.

Accessed 30 March 2023.

“Digging Through School Waste Composition.” Edubirdie, https://edubirdie.com/blog/school-

waste-statistics. Accessed 30 March 2023.

Ruben, Barbara. "Paper chase: the battle over how recycled paper is defined may determine the

fate of community recycling programs." Environmental Action Magazine, vol. 25, no. 2,

summer 1993, pp. 12+. Gale OneFile: High School Edition,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A13253269/GPS?u=pioneer&sid=bookmark-

GPS&xid=0659c404. Accessed 27 Mar. 2023.