How do I get the school I work at to really recycle?

Question

I'm a Kindergarten teacher and we have a recycle bin and a trash bin in our classroom. I've taught my kids to recycle everything possible and they work very hard at it. But I just found out from the janitor that though they have a recycle bin, the garbage men take both trash and recycle and dump it into the same trash bin. This frustrates me so much. School's use so much paper and other recyclable materials. I talked to my hubby about this and he says that his work does the same thing. Everyone there recycles but in the end it all goes in the same garbage. I don't want to get anyone in trouble, and I'm not a huge environmentalist, but this seems silly and wasteful. I'm afraid if I complain to my district that someone will get in trouble and they'll know it's from me so I don't want to do that.

Answer 1

Even if your janitor is willing to put the extra effort into recycling, there is no guarantee that recycled materials won't end up in a landfill, even if it makes it to the recycling truck.  If there is one weak link, all that effort is for nothing.

However, if you in the least want the recycled materials to make it out of the door, you might make a game of things.  Maybe whose class can recycle the most.  That would create attention and the janitor might feel like they should at least be trying to carry out the intent of the schoolchildren.

Also, in order for procedures to be followed, they have to be as simple as possible.  People naturally take short cuts.  If your janitor has to choose between an extra half hour recycling, or an extra half hour with his wife and kids, he'll choose the latter.

Answer 2

Don't! Teach your kids to think more broadly!

Being wise with resources is good - but recycling is not the green solution it is cracked up to be. Why do you think the local governments have taken over the recycling effort? They make money and create make-work jobs, and raise taxes to do it! Consider:

1.) In the United States the vast majority of paper is manufactured from trees grown on tree farms that were created specifically for making paper. In fact, because of the great need for paper, these tree farms have caused an at least 3-fold increase in the tree population since 1920.

2.) More energy is spent in collecting, sorting, and processing in recycling than just making things from scratch. Some estimates show that it costs about three times as much to recycle one ton of garbage than to just dump it in a landfill.

3.) Land fill capacities, like blast furnace capacities, have increased incredibly over the years. Because of this, the number of land fills needed to satisfy our needs has decreased, but the overall land fill capacity in the U.S. has increased.

Answer 3

Good question. A lot of times this happens simply because nobody knows how to get the materials to be recycled in the hands of the recycle center. You might check out earth911.org to locate a recycle center near you and see if they can't give you some insight on how to proceed. A lot of states seem to have state specific websites that can tell you where to find a recycle center and how it all works.

Answer 4

The poster before me had the best idea.. money always talks.

I read an article recently in my local paper about the town saving lots of money by reducing trash.

Instead of complaining to someone (which may or may not fall on deaf ears), you could look into the costs of disposing trash vs. the cost of recycling and present the information to whoever would have control over the situation.  That way you don't look like a tree hugger (for some reason that's bad to many people), you look like you're concerned about saving money.

Answer 5

You need someone to be in charge to pick up the recycled items if possible,  Perhaps a club from a middle or high school could sponsor your school and pick up the boxes.  At our high school the special needs students collect and sort as a project and learning activity.  They have a separate containere for the paper that the city picks up.

Answer 6

I work for oil company - l am looking for new job -.

I am going to write a letter to my hr manager and write down a number of suggestions, that would be pratical and work well. and most of all save the comany money! - maybe the saving money will make them motivated!