HILLCREST ENVIRONMENT CLUB

"Our Gaia Matters..."

PAPER RECYCLING

The Environment Club Paper Recycling Project is finally underway.  To start with we have positioned 4 large bins in strategic locations around school – 2 at the school archway, 1 in the photocopying room and 1 in the art room.  The school community has been notified of the project by an announcement in the school bulletin.

Why should you recycle paper?

Amongst all the reasons there’s 3 that stand out:

1)     To reduce the amount of rubbish that needs to be dumped or incinerated or disposed of in other ways

2)     To reduce the amount of land needed to grow trees for making paper, as well as reduce illegal logging.

3)     To cash in on your waste!

Where can you drop off your waste paper?

Depending on where you live, you could look up a paper recycling company or depot in the Yellow Pages and drop off the paper.  It doesn’t take too much effort to throw paper waste in a separate bin at home or at your office, only a little initiative and concern for the future of our environment.

How the project runs:

The bin bags in the large bins are removed and replaced as soon as they are filled.  A group of 10 students have volunteered their services for this task, with a pair of students assigned to check the bins each day.  We have found a temporary place to store the bin bags of paper and are hoping that future school plans will take the need for paper storage into account.

Main problems:

Our main problem is that trash such as soda cans, crisp packets and plastic wrapping is being deposited in the bins along with the waste paper.  The levels of other rubbish aren’t too high but it seems that some members of the school community don’t seem to understand the sign that says, “PAPER ONLY”.

Future plans:

The ambitious plan is to collect all the paper used in school by having bins in every class for paper only.  The first step is to make people understand that paper recycling needs input by all parties, i.e. if there are bins in every classroom for paper only, then students should not throw other rubbish in them.  This attitude does not exist at the moment.

Anokhee Shah (Vice-Head Coordinator, Hillcrest Environment Club - 2001)

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