Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Students speak: TerraCycling and Bottle Cap Collection

From the written contributions of 8th graders Sam, Pavitra, and Sarah:

In order to conserve materials and aide the environment, our school has undergone a system of terra-cycling.  We have implemented a number of systems.  

One of these is the bottle cap collection, in which students compete to recycle the most bottle caps for their hallway. 



This effort has yielded over a thousand bottle caps, and these will be used to create a mural for the school halls.


photo by Abi, 3rd grade


At lunch, students are encouraged to recycle their chip bags, candy wrappers, and other foil-lined bags.  




Each day, this system produces two boxes of materials that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.  At the end of each week, our school ships these materials to the TerraCycling program to be made into other goods, such as backpacks.



As you can see, this will accumulate a massive amount of waste over the school year.  Our school is quite involved in the process and we hope it will aid the world in its struggle for good.



The Green Team is delighted with the enthusiasm the students are showing for these responsible green efforts.  One first grader handed me this the other day.


Finally, congratulations to the Primary Hall who won the bottle cap competition in a dramatic upset over the highly-favored Intermediate Hall.  The Green Team students will be planning and constructing a mural with these bottle caps in the coming weeks.


Career Awareness Bonus (jobs related to this post): packaging engineer/designer, recycle center manager, mixed media artist, 8th grade teacher



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