Strath Haven is going green. Through the environmental club Green Haven, students are working to improve and revamp the school’s recycling system.
Recycling reduces the amount of trash put out into the environment and reuses old materials. Climate change and environmental issues have become increasingly important in recent years as the effects of human-induced pollution and destruction of the environment become more apparent.
Within the halls of Strath Haven, students are responding to this crisis through Green Haven, a club dedicated to making the school more environmentally friendly. French teacher and Green Haven faculty co-sponsor Mrs. Traci Dubs described the current recycling initiative.
“Our mission is to make Strath Haven more green,” Dubs said. “Our current initiative is to focus on recycling as it is something all of the students care about. We talked about other initiatives but this is something we jumped on.”
There are multiple challenges facing the school recycling program, including the lack of collections of the classroom recycling bins and the contamination of recycling with trash and other materials.
“From what I understand, the school has two recycling dumpsters that take glass, aluminum, cardboard, paper, and plastic,” Dubs said.
The incorrect placement of non-recyclable trash, such as food and chip bags, prevents materials in their respective bins from being recycled. Everything, including the recycling, has to be thrown out as a result of this.
According to Dubs, contamination is a common problem for recycling initiatives. It is important to put trash and recycling in the correct bin. Students should be especially aware of this at lunch, where the recycling is often unsalvageable due to the amount of food and trash mixed in with the recycling.
“We put up signs to alert students as to what can be recycled,” junior Joseph Tracy said. “We emailed teachers to let them know about the issue, and have students make the right decision with their trash.”
Green Haven has also been rounding up recycling from classrooms in order to help keep the school clean. Club members sign up to pick up recycling from green recycling bins in classrooms each week.
If you have interest in helping out with Green Haven, you can contact Dubs or co-adviser Ms. Gianna Harris, or visit the Green Haven Google Classroom (code yvqgokx) where announcements and sign-ups are available for recycling collections and other events. Service hours are available for recycling pickups, according to an announcement posted to the Activities Google Classroom.
