IDEAS anyone?

Question

Hey, Im the president of the enviormental club in my school. We're currently into battery recycling and planning composting, but the composting probably won't get done until next year and I'll be gone so....Yea I was thinking any good ideas what we can do for the rest of the year? We are about to plant a few trees, and get more recycling cans. SO....I would really appreciate it if you would give me good, geniuen and helpful asnwers/projects to do that will HELP the environment.

Answer 1

Recycle those drink containers not on the refund list.  Water and non-carbonated.  Bet your school has tons of them just heading for the landfill.

Answer 2

There are several things you can do....you can vericompost (using red worms)  Do an internet search and you'll find all kinds of things.  Set up a booth at a local event and give out information to the public.   Make fabric bags or collect them--beach bags, tote bags (lots of companies have them and give them out at conferences--ask for their extras) and give them away and ask people to use them instead of plastic bags.   EPA estimates that about 890 BILLION plastic bags, sacks and wraps are used by Americans every year and most of them are tossed into the landfills.  Conduct a writing campaign to ask manufacturers to cut back on the amount of packaging....put a display in the lobby of your library showing wise purchasing decisions--bulk packaging rather than single servings, using reusable containers instead of throw away stuff, etc.  Earth Day is coming up in April and lots of places would probably like your help in their event/fair, etc.  Good luck--this is what I do in Colorado--Reduce, Reuse, Recycle education.

Answer 3

See what you think of this idea.  Learn about what trees are native to the area where you live.  Most of the "domestic" trees won't be native.  Organize groups to look for, locate and map the locations of living specimens.  If possible, learn about their precolumbian range or territory.  Collect and store the seeds of each species.  Some species have two genders, so be cognizant of that.  You will find groups and organizations devoted to the preservation of native trees.  In some cases preservation amounts to replanting in areas where they have been replaced with foreign types, or monoculture.  Yahoo also has many good groups for seed trading.  I think it's a good idea for a club or group to "adopt" a species to focus on.  Here are a few sources.

Answer 4

The problem is that the council have already taken over much of this work. They do the composting, paper recycling etc. The bottles they won't take are a possibility, but how you would dispose of them yourself would be a problem.

I personally am going down the other route of improving our environment by creating a wildlife, green area. This is only in its 3rd  year but the charges are already becoming evident.

Answer 5

I think these are all good ideas so far. I think you should also think long term as you seem to be doing. I'd start doing as much library and web search work as possible on safe clean alternative energy sources and begin using your knowledge to influence those who make decisions. My generation meant well but seems to have left yours with some serious dirt to clean up. You might start with a google search for the things that google is doing to help our Earth. Google "google green" and keep searching way beyond that. Once you have seen the possiblities, broaden your scope to include the PTA and your community. Let them know what you learned. Be a very positive constructive influence on your future. Don't let nay sayers influence you. Dream, think out of the box and ponder ways that nobody else has thought of doing. Have brain storming sessions and don't ridicule ideas. Evaluate them. If it was so easy, my generation would have all the answers. Actually many of us think we do have all the answers ... makes you wonder, eh?

You could organize some of your club into searching each of the major energy sources and common green techniques, making regular reports and updates. Get your faculty involved too. Don't let them sit on their duff while you do all the work. Ask if they could help with your searches and in organizing the data. Make a space in your library for others to start where you let go and leave school.

It doesn't stop when you graduate.

You could also find folks who need help in various ways. Organize a money collection to place solar hot water heaters in "habitat for humanity" homes and solar photovoltaic panels and shingles for their roof.  Just a few panels could help. The key is to learn the possiblities and make dreams become reality for someone.

Think about building water collection and holding tanks to cut down on run-off during heavy rainstorms, saving water for summer droughts. Perhaps many ideas are far beyond your means as a club member but if you organize and involve appropriate citizens, you'd be amazed at how much can be done.

Answer 6

If you are planting trees, why not plant friut trees? or try growing your own vegetables? now is the time to start... by growing your own you will help to reduce the air miles used to import 'out of season' vegetables to your table.

Answer 7

Award something.... for the student who can come up with the 10 best ideas to reduce energy consumption a home and at school.  The club could judge the entries and the best could appear if the final edition of the school paper.

Answer 8

Idea:

Solar power is a matter of cost-efficiency, no?

Anyone see an LMT Liquid Mirror Telescope?

(lots of them in schools cause theyre cheap)

Take a decent dish, pour in some mercury, spin it up, it forms an optically perfect parabola from a thin layer of mercury.

Only thing is its axis will only point straight out from earth.

Do the same, but this time with some kind of resin instead of mercury.

Hardens while spinning.

You could make a HUUUGE cheap optical dish to point at sun.

Put the dish in a gymbol, timed on a 24-hour rotation to track sun.

Say 50 feet across, probably thousands of degrees at the secondary.

Steam-turbine.. Sterling.. whatever to convert.

Now you need consistent power, not intermittent, so make a HUUUGE flywheel to store that. power.

Underground, deep, because if this baby ever gets loose, you're talking the stored up energy of a bomb.

This should power a house, no prob, low cost, totally gridless independence.

Small-scale school experiment would be a blast.

Heres another upside. Say it's popular, now we've got thousands of telescopes at night.

SETI's gift from God. :)

The cosmic joke? Just about the time we're patting ourselves on the back for being so energy-advanced, we get contacted by extraterrestrials who feel sorry for us cause we're such cave-dwellers when it comes to energy.

We're such a pathetic little third-world world.

Answer 9

Organize carpools by finding people who live near each other (unless you have buses).

Answer 10

I just recently found out that tennis shoes (sneakers) can be recycled into playground material.  There is a drive going on right now in our community to collect them.  Unfortunately, I don't know where to send them....but I'm sure you could find out quite easily.  A school is a GOOD place to find LOTS of dirty-rotten unwanted sneakers!

Answer 11

If you get lots of sunlight try making a solar cooker its easy and safe and works with proper sunlight. Your school may be able to use it for cooking too.

Try planting local fruit trees as these sustain the birds and the bees and other small insects and animals.

Also planting trees along the roadsides helps provide shade as well as absorb some exhaust from cars on road.

Collecting seeds of different trees and spreading them on open lands works as a faster way of planting trees. This is called as seeding.

You could also plant some sapling of trees like Jatropha (assuming your govt. permits it) so that in future your school can make biodiesel experiments with its oil.

Creating small pockets of thick forestlike growth for local wildlife to survive is also a good idea.

Answer 12

Yes, I have a good idea, that great for the environment, and great for getting teens outdoors.

Build homes for our native bees.  Orchard Mason Bees to be specific.

Orchard Mason Bees are found from South America, all the way up into Canada.  If you are ANYWHERE in the U.S.A., there are OMB's near you.  

You can do a search if you are curious about what the OMB's in your specific area look like.  Some are really brightly colored.  Most are very plain, blackish brown.

Here's a link to how to build the bee houses:

http://www.nwf.org/backyard/beehouse.cfm

You don't have to buy lumber for this project.  If someone has some old firewood they are willing to donate, that works GREAT!

It's very, very easy to build the bee houses, and you will make a real and true differance for the environment.

This link has some good pictures of very simple bee houses:

http://habitat.ms11.net/bee/beehome.htm

DO varry the size the the holes you drill.  The hole size determines the size the bee will be when it emerges.  Little bees for tiny flowers, bigger bees for bigger flowers.  Nature is not one size fits all.

The native bees are vastly superior pollinators, compaired to domestic honey bees.  Domestic bees pollinate about 3-5% of the flowers they visit.  Native bees pollinate 95-97% of the flowers they visit!

Native bees also start flying at much colder temps, about 50(F).  This means they spend about 3-5 hours more time each day pollinating than the domestic bees do.

Orchard Mason Bees almost never sting.  The males have no stinger.  The females almost never do.  I've put my hand right over a hole a female bee was using for her eggs.  All she did was buzz and vibrate under my hand.  She didn't sting me.  They are very gentle.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 13

What about recycling paper to saves trees. You could make a project out of collecting old news papers from shut-ins who can't get out. You might  contact the local senior citizens club for a list of contacts. Even ask your  neighbors to keep their papers for you. SAVE A TREE!!!

Answer 14

Make sure your school is recycle cardboard boxes, bottles and aluminum. See if your school will start to purchase glass bottles for water and juices instead of plastic during lunches.

Fund raiser are also a good idea to help off set any troubles with prices. Many parents have business that can offer gift boxes and have a Chinese auction. This has helped many different school to raise money.