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Hmm...Could you write to your principal about it??

Don't write the principal, write the school board and the superintendent. They have more control over that sort of thing.

I think schools are a big culprit when it comes to wasting things, mainly paper. Just think how much paper is used every day for worksheets etc. A way to get around this could be to just have the worksheet shown on an over-head projector, and we work from that, as writing things down often helps to remember things too ^^

Or just use the good old text books xd

We have the same problem too.

I am the leader of my high school's ecology club and we have been trying really hard to get recycling to work. We are in constant contact with the custodial staff and we even pick through the recycling bins to rid them of "contamination" because if the white paper only bin has ANYTHING... it goes straight into the trash. We are also raising money to buy plastic bottle & aluminum can bins and we are willing to pick them up and separate them ourselves if the custodians won't.

We are also buying two composting bins for our green house and kitchen staff to use to reduce waste and rid the need of fertilizers.

Another thing we have done is create a battery recycling box (nearly all batteries are recyclable including cell phone batteries AND disposable) for the teachers offices and we just made boxes for newspapers and magazines.

We are also collecting the paper (colored and white) that was not double-sided and the teacher were going to get rid of anyways. We are going to cut up these papers and create notepads in our graphic arts room. We are going to sell them to raise money.

We are also trying to get rid of styrofoam trays. We would like reusable plastic trays but we might have to settle for a less harmful disposable option. I just wish we could recycle everything here... did you know you can even recycle the milk & orange juice containers made of paper?

I can't tell you how many people we've talked to and how many e-mails I've sent, but e-mails rarely ever get responses. If you want to make a difference you need to actually talk to someone in person and get to the root of the problem.

haha tonight I even picked up a waterbottle in a parking lot so I could recycle it later. Sometimes I even take plastic home from work so I can recycle it. One good way of reducing your impact is by using a reusable cup/bottle because plastic is made from oil and water should be free... plastic water bottle are very horrible and pointless especially because most water companies get the water from tap anyways.

One meeting that worked really well was the school faculty meeting where we asked the teachers to try really hard to keep an eye on the paper recycling bins to make sure people use them for paper and paper only. We also asked them to try harder to double-side their paper. It is also nice to bring up the law for recycling in your state. I like in connecticut and the law is listed right on the CT EPA's website. It is very impressive when you can cite a law in a meeting.

If anyone has any questions for me I'm like an encyclopedia about recycling and nearly everything about the environment. I could go on and on and on about things you could do to reduce your impact. It's fun being and environmentalist because you can inspire others to do the same. It makes me feel so good when my friend tells me that I was the reason they didn't eat meat that day or that I was the reason they didn't throw away their plastic bottle & are gonna save it to recycle.

I guess I've written too much now...

Well, we don't technically have a president, but my best friend and I started the club sophomore year (we got nothing done that year but I blame sports for that because I could only stay for my own meeting for about 15 minutes). So my best friend and I are technically presidents because we pretty much run things just without the label. I sure hope it gets me into a nice college. My first application is due in 5 days! Eek! All I have left to do is finish my essay! I'm excited though, I just finished the paper work for the compost tumbler bins (2 of them) which our green house will use as natural fertilizer.


We just made the notepads recently, too. In graphic arts class they make like t-shirts and notepads. I think they make them by using a really big paper cutter then the dip one side in a red wax. I missed the day my club made it because I had to visit a college. But this first batch we gave away for free to teachers, but next time we'll probably charge a very small fee like 50 cents to a dollar. They came out really nice looking. We drew pictures and everything on the first page of each notepad... I left notes on the ones I decorated reminding the teachers to leave their one-sided paper in the bin we made from the cardboard boxes that our school's paper came in. Next time I want to leave little environmental reminders or facts.

Sometimes calling doesn't even work. Some people you have to hunt them down and talk to them in person. Like this one guy that I've been trying to get-- the head of maintenance-- I need to contact him before I can order an recycling bins and I have to talk to him in order to get the washing machine fixed & hunt down the missing hard plastic trays so we don't have to use styrofoam trays anymore.

Right now we are organizing essentially an anti-black friday (the day after thanksgiving when the shopping period begins). We are calling it green friday and we are selling stuff that is old rather than new and other stuff along those lines.

Good luck!<3