By Arabella Saunders, Editor-in-Chief
Items the Environmental Club has found while recycling: cheese, gum, apple sauce, an ice pack, a moldy smoothie, a used Band-Aid.
All of these things are disgusting. None of these things are recyclable.
Every Monday and Thursday afternoon, members of the Environmental Club weave in out of classrooms, grabbing recycling bins and separating paper, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. In a perfect world, recyclable materials would be the only things we’d have to touch, but for reasons we cannot fathom – laziness? Ignorance? Resolute indifference? – the Environmental Club spends a good portion of its time picking out candy wrappers shoved into empty water bottles or throwing away tissues carelessly dropped in our soda-stained bins.
Although it may seem like a mindless task, the time the Environmental Club spends recycling each week adds up: I’ve jokingly begun referring to us as the Recycling Club. At least twice a week, Environmental Club members devote their Empower Time periods to organizing recyclables into their respective bins and – sadly – sorting out people’s trash as well.
It’s true, sometimes sorting out trash can provide entertainment. We’ve played “What are the Odds?” to see who would have to drink spoiled milk (they both chose 26). We’ve transformed into detectives to decipher what kind of prescription medication was buried at the bottom of a blue bin. We’ve created our very own Environmental Club Trash Myths (members claim they once found a condom wrapper). Although it can be amusing, the majority of the time, sorting trash out from the recycling proves irritating.
The Environmental Club’s mission is to aid FFHS in becoming an eco-friendly school. Recycling is important, but we wish to accomplish a variety of goals – a school greenhouse, a community compost pile, fundraisers, beach clean-ups and more. Unfortunately, many of our goals never make it farther than a Google Docs brainstorming session due to the time and effort we spend not only recycling, but sorting out trash.
We’ve decorated posters, we’ve printed step-by-step guides (we’ve even laminated them), we’ve spoken to teachers, we’ve spoken to peers. The Environmental Club has taken multiple steps to assist First Flight in becoming a more eco-friendly place. But all we really ask is that students and staff take a few seconds before throwing something away and ask themselves, “Is this recyclable? If so, should it go in the blue bin or the brown paper bag?”
Those few seconds on your part can save the Environmental Club a crucial amount of time – time we could use to transform Nighthawk-blue FFHS into a greener place.
Senior Arabella Saunders can be reached at [email protected].
