This year McNick has made a goal to prioritize recycling. One way of doing that was adding cans next to the trash in the cafe with signs to let students know what they should and shouldn’t be recycling.
The ecology club was working on a way to increase the amount of recycling, and this was a great way to start the new year with a positive impact on the school. The club had agreed on this idea and executed it just in time for the new year.
“We’re trying to get as many volunteers as we can to stand by the 6 different stations in the café and encourage people to do it” states Mrs. Mary Dennemann, leader of ecology club and science department chair.
To keep recycling encouraged and enforced the students from ecology club stand beside the cans to help the students with posters that indicate what of the common trash items from lunches can or cannot be recycled. With these efforts in actions, “we would decrease the amount of trash and increase recycling,” Dennemann states.
There are hopes that in the long run that this will continue to stay successfully encouraged and done well and soon enough the students will no longer need help knowing what to recycle.
The long-term goal of recycling more would be to add composting into the routine as well.
“I view it as a stepping stone, I want to get the café to work good with recycling and have the school work well with recycling” Mrs. Dennemann states.
The school already had a recycling program in place which students led by collecting cans from classrooms and depositing recycling to the proper dumpster. This expansion to the café is meant to continue educating students on becoming lifelong recyclers.
Recycling at school can set an example for students to go home and continue to set an example for their families.
The McNicholas Milestone 