Go Green?!?

Question

A few friends and I have recently started a go green club at school. The response to this club was tremendous. Were trying to think of ideas on making our school and surrounding area eco-friendly. Our first few simple ideas were getting recycling bins for our school, decorating our courtyard with flowers, and replacing our regular sink faucets with motion censored ones. Were also planning on holding a volleyball tournament to raise money for a unicef/helping the enviroment type organization. Any ideas for organizations that we can become involved with or any ideas for our community or school would be greatly appreciated. thanks =)

Answer 1

It is a great thing that the schools have started on recycle. I personally feel that the students should be made to avoid using bottles that need recycling adn encouraged to use reusable things. The grown ups have ingrained habits which die hard. Cycling may also help.

nanucbe

Answer 2

Congrats Nikki on the work your group has done in going green. One of the most important aspects in greening is 'Reduce'.

Your school may be green, but what about the students? What are their spending habits? Are they constantly buying clothes, shows and DVDs? Are they trying to keep up with trends and fads?

Perhaps some exercises in consumer choices at the point-of-sale. Or alternatives to new things from places like Freecycle as mentioned by others.

The less stuff you consume, the less trash you produce.

Answer 3

If Im kinda green but still in the not quite as green as you all think I should, what color does that make me? Maybe a mustard or an olive or .........

Answer 4

For surrounding area do you mean the homes of the kids?  If you do you can have them ask their parents to install low-flow shower heads  and put in the new kind of light bulbs the cfl's.  What about when you raise some money for the school, could the school buy a carbon offset?  If you don't know what this is it is where a person or organization buys (gives the money) for about $30.00 towards green energy, the money goes towards buying solar panels or wind turbines and this produces "green" electricity and this helps because instead people might have been using electricity that was made by coal plants which pollute and now it is not going to pollute as much with the green power.   You can look at the web site it is http://www.terrapass.com

You can get your school to turn off the lights in the class rooms when no one is in them.   It sounds like you kids are doing great!!

Oh yeah, if you are in a city you might have a household hazardous waste depot where people can take things like old paint and batteries so they are disposed of properly.  You can also try to get people to use rechargeable batteries, they do cost a bit more to buy but you can use them over and over.

Answer 5

One thing that I plan to implement at my school is to start recycling plastics.  Not everyone takes them because of the different kinds there are.  We are going to sell those nalgene bottles with our clubs logo on it and people can bring in their water bottles they want to recycle.  I don't know where I saw it, but there is a large number of water bottles being thrown away instead of being re-used.  Also, I don't know if you are in college or not, but I know at the end of the year at my school, the amount of stuff people throw away is outrageous.  I've seen tons of couches, chairs and tables.  Maybe your group can help take these items from students so they are reused.  Also, another project in our college's town is called Re-Store.  It's like a thrift shop but the students help run the store.

Answer 6

I'm not sure if this will help you as far as wanting to have recycling bins but I know it will help you as far as wanting to go the Earth friendly Green route.  I belong to a Yahoo Forum called FreeCycle.org.    The sole purpose of this forum to help eliminate unnecessary addition to America’s landfills by people giving away and looking for things you/they may need and everything must be free.  I’ve used it many times both giving and being on the receiving end.  

The one thing I do suggest if you decide to join is to create an additional eMail address (a free one through yahoo, hotmail, etc) because you will receive lots of eMail each day, especially on the weekends when people have more time to go through their things, clean out garages/storages, and are giving away whatever is left over from whatever yard sale is had.  

This is the best site ever created!  If you live in Mesa, there is also one for that location and the site address for that on is FreeMesa.org.

I hope this helps you at least a little and helps anyone else reading these posts.

DeJamey

Answer 7

First, I want to thank you for your great initiative! We need people like you, who actually do something and show others that "go green" is good, beautiful and healthy. That is so awsome!

There are so many cool things you can do! And you have already addressed a few of them.

**Another idea is to promote waste-free lunches once a month for example. You can google that and get ideas. The tricky part is to figure out how to ask the cafeteria to follow. You can work on waste, quality of food (locally grown? organic? nutrituios?), utensils that are biodegradable. Maybe you can start a compost? The town usually give out free compost bins with information. Contact your town to ask about it!

** I also suggest you contact Keep Rockland Beautiful (www.keeprocklandbeautiful.org) who are the ones that arranges the clean-ups in the spring and fall, but also has educational programs for schools and have, I am sure, lots of ideas for you (tell them Anna from Rockland Green Map sent you).

** You could also, to build your community, contact the other schools go green or eco clubs. Together you can trade ideas and support.

** Just yesteday, I spoke to a woman who is very knowledgeable in the use of pesticides and the risks to health (young people are at risk too) and the environment (destruction of the soil), etc. Rockland County has recently decided to stop the use of toxic pesticides, towns and schools and individuals can too. If this interests you, we could set up a meeting with her (at your school for example). She has a program already worked out with guidlines how to manage lawns and gardens without toxic stuff, so the trick will be to convince the school, and the school district that this is something YOU want. You could get the PTA to support you here as well.

** I am working in the Rockland Green Map project. Making  a green map over your school or home town is another way to learn about the green resources in your area (and learn which ones are missing). Check out www.greenmap.org and our website www.rocklandgreenmap.org if you want.

** The Sierra Club is another great resource for go green things. They are local and have worked on the towns and county to sign a Cool Cities agreement. They have many ideas.

** Invite speakers from different environmental organizations to give a presentation at your school. There are plenty of them. I will put the list up on our website next week!

I have just been thinking that it would be great to put together a meeting with the school district, students, PTAs about the pesticide issue. If we get something going, and plan a meeting, I will post the date and time here.

Keep us updated on how things are going! (Your club could join another group called Rockland Sustainable Community (http://weareawake.ning.com/group/rocklan... There you could also ask for input. Many of its members are people just like you who want to make a difference.

Good luck!

Answer 8

our school is participating in a kind of go green movement. our school has a recycling bin from www.paperretriever.com in every classroom and the healthy environment and recycling clubs come around and pick them up about once a week. there has been a huge turnout and many teachers are now telling students to always put all papers into the recycling bins. good luck with your movement; it's amazing.!!! :]

Answer 9

Recycle bins/boxes for household batteries. Encourages the kids to think about the impact if thrown away, makes them to use rechargable ones (Halfords disgusts me by selling one-off one's in a multipack of a hundred for 50p) and prompts them to go around the neighbourhood to collect them.

Recycle bins for that EVIL Wrigleys gum wrappers!!! One for the paper part and one for the metal part. Ok, I admit that I'm exaggerating and am perhaps a bit traumatised by the 'Go Green' bit, having to separate the latter during my school days in Germany at the height of the recycling era. ;-) that really tipped me over the edge but do see a need for recycling espc. in the UK which is 20yrs behind!!!!!

Kudos to you and a good idea. Just don't alienate the kids as I was as it will result in opposite behaviour. Education on preserving energy is good, that is switching off electricals. And actually WALKING to school (SHOCK!!!!) to preserve resources and fighting obesity. It didn't do any damage to me in two metre high snow. Spoilt brats!!