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Introduction: Explain the entire project.
We in the Greenwich Young Scholars program are
doing a project on recycling, studying about paper recyclable goods
in 5 counties’ schools around Greenwich, New York. This was done by
splitting the essay into questions and we all got separate parts of
it to complete. What are the effects of recycling? What recycled
paper products typically used in the schools? What is the school
budget for paper goods in Greenwich? What recycling plants are
throughout New York State and the counties near us? The first thing
that we needed to know is if many schools other than us recycle
paper goods.
Tim Norton, Grade 7, Greenwich
Do schools Around Greenwich Recycle Paper
Goods?
Greenwich GCS has a recycling program called
Students to Oppose Pollution (S.T.O.P.).We have boxes in every
classroom from grades 7-12 in which the students and teachers put
their used paper. Every Wednesday the science teacher and students
in grades 7-8 help her pick up the paper from the classrooms, bring
it to the science room, and sort it. They take the paper and
separate it into different piles. Once the students sort them they
put it in a teacher’s car and she brings it to a recycling center.
After participating in S.T.O.P. our local recycling program at
Greenwich Central School (GCS), I expected most of the recycled
paper products to be lined paper and notebooks; however I found that
the recycled paper product range is wide and varying. S.T.O.P had a
big affect in our school, so we are now looking at other schools to
see whether or not they recycle.
Upon looking up
schools that have a population close to Greenwich in five counties,
Washington, Saratoga, Essex, Hamilton, and Warren, in the northeast
region of New York it was found that Cambridge, Corinth, Galaway,
Mechanicville, Stillwater, Ticonderoga, Hadley-Luzerne, and Lake
George were the only schools with a similar population. (www.emsc.nysed.gov).
After reviewing a number of school web sites,
including Greenwich, and asking teachers at schools in our area if
they had paper recycling programs in their schools there was little
to no information gathered. A 7th grade Science teacher
at Stillwater said that Stillwater does not have a recycling
program, but they use some recycled brown paper towels and they have
100% recycled toilet tissue paper. A surprising comment from his
was, “I have no information about a local recycling plant. At one
point, the Stillwater school did recycle. When it did, the paper was
taken to the Port of Albany where it was shipped to a plant for
recycling.” Thankfully the process of recycling is so simple now
that a little effort can go a long way.
Oren Cook, Home Schooled, Greenwich
What are the environmental effects of
recycling paper?
In order to research the effects of recycling I
looked in books from the Greenwich Central School Library and
searched on the web. Contrary to my expectations the books were not
useful, and the internet was. The internet had precise, accurate,
and up to date information and the books have inaccurate, confusing,
and outdated information. Using this information I formed the
following analysis of the environmental effects of recycling paper
or, more importantly, of not recycling paper.
Effects of recycling paper
Recycling paper reduces pollution, oil and
water use, saves trees and landfill space and uses much less energy
than virgin paper production. For every ton of paper recycled 17
trees, 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space, three 380 gallons of oil
and 4,000 kilowatts are saved (http://www.resourcefulschools.org/html/facts.html
et al). While this
may not seem like much, it has a significant positive impact on the
environment. Recycled paper uses 55% less water, reduces water
pollution by 35%, and air pollution by nearly75%. Recycling saves
energy as well, reducing energy use by 60-70% (http://www.sutta.com/environmental.html).
Recycling one ton of paper saves $990 per ton just on oil and
electricity (http://www.resourcefulschools.org/html/facts.html).
One ton of paper is the equivalent of one small
school recycling its paper for a year. If nine separate small
schools each recycled one ton of paper each year, they would save
540 lbs of air pollution, 153 trees, 63,000 gallons of water, 3,420
gallons of oil, 36,000 kilowatts of electricity (for a combined
savings on oil and electricity of $8,910),and 29.7 cubic yards of
landfill space per year.
Effects of not recycling paper
If we do not recycle, the waste of our
resources will continue, possibly driving up the costs of oil,
definitely creating tons of easily preventable air and water
pollution, and using thousands of kilowatts of unnecessary
electricity.
What can you do?
With 95% of our native forests in the U.S.,
gone a change is in order (http://www.recycleworks.org/paper/paper_wbr.html).
Recycling paper is only part of the effort needed to reduce the
strain on environmental resources. Consumers must also purchase
goods created from recycled materials in order to complete the
circle. If consumers create a market for recycled goods, then
recycling itself will become more cost effective, and the products
will become cheaper. Schools alone can create their own markets for
recycled paper enabling them to save money and be environmentally
friendly at the same time.
Andrew Horning, Grade 8, Greenwich
What Are The
Recycled Products?
While
dividing my research section into several smaller sections, mainly
dealing with the different recycled paper products used in schools.
Initial research revealed some of the types of products made from
recycled paper, I found Available Recycled Paper Products,
which contained a list of recyclable paper products. Computer paper,
binders, dividers, folders, lined paper, books, journals, food
service containers, napkins, and tissues were included. Sadly all
of these products are found in schools and are often not recycled.
As
research continued I found a pie chart at Municipal Solid Waste
(MSW) that showed how much of each material makes up the MSW. I was
shocked to find that paper made up the largest portion by far,
almost 35.5%, which that means that if we just started recycling all
paper we would eliminate 35.5% of our MSW. That would save a
priceless amount of our land from becoming mounds of garbage. It
would provide room for more housing, sports fields, public gardens,
and parks. Seeing this, it would be almost foolish to ignore it when
the solution is so simple.
Also found
was Paper Recycling where I took notes on sanitary issues
such as de-inking. There are 3 major de-inking processes the
processes are as follows: (1) Washing as paper is pulped, chemicals
can be added which separate the ink from the paper and allow it to
be washed away. (2) Flotation air is passed through pulp, producing
foam which the ink will stick to and rise to the surface. (3)
Centrifugal Cleaning ink particles and fibers (paper) are different
masses so when put in centrifugal motion they will separate. (*note:
process (3) was from the email reply from
eric.infante@sca.com.) Biodegradable chemicals such as hydrogen
peroxide can be used, which breaks down into water and oxygen on
disposal. This would prevent harmful chemicals from leaking into the
environment.
I
collected this information while awaiting a response to the email
that had been sent to
eric.infante@sca.com. Eric Infante is the computer specialist at
SCA, a paper mill/paper processor that our class at Greenwich
Central School visited on a field trip. He introduced us to his
fellow employees Barb Hemken and Steve Duell, the recycling experts
at SCA. They were able to confirm the recycled paper products and
told us that the price of recycled paper compared to virgin paper
(fresh, new paper) depended more on the supplier than on “rule of
thumb”. Mr. Duell also shared some of his knowledge about the
recycling process and de-inking. He said that some of the processes
are actually similar to a clothes washing process. Mr. Duell also
let us know that while the water levels used in both virgin and
recycled paper are very high, one is not necessarily more than the
other. However, a lot of the water used in both processes is cleaned
and reused.
After
researching recycling for several weeks our class has found that not
only is it environmentally beneficial, but will also save us huge
quantities of oil and electricity, oil use being under much
controversy because of its extreme prices. The recycled paper is
clean and sanitary, the process (depending on the plant and money
put into it) is environmentally safe, and in the overall scope of
things, could potentially reduce our oil problems drastically, and
save a large portion of electricity. Helping recycle can and will
make our world a healthier and better place.
Mel Steinberg, Grade 7, Greenwich
Does GCS Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle?
My initial research question was this: Does
Greenwich Central School District (G.C.S.), specifically the
Junior-Senior High, use recycled paper products, and if not, would
it be cost-effective to do so? According to The Resourceful
Schools Project, recycling saves trees, landfill space, and
massive amounts of oil and electricity. Not only would money be
saved, but what about the environment? We wanted to find the answers
to these questions because G.C.S. currently has a recycling program
called S.T.O.P., Students To Oppose Pollution. If our school is
recycling paper, we want to know if we are completing the recycling
flow by also purchasing recycled paper.
The answers to these questions were searched
for at the G.C.S. website,
www.greewichcsd.org, I couldn’t find them so I wrote an email to
Beth Ann Mosher of the Greenwich Central School Business Office. We
asked her a few questions about the school’s 2005-2006 budget and
the paper products the school purchases. Beth Ann Mosher informed us
that the Greenwich schools purchase their plain copy paper from
Ricoh Corp. They buy 650 cases of “virgin, not made from recycled
product” plain copy paper, and about 225 of these cases are used by
the Junior-Senior High. The plain white copy paper costs about
$20.13 per case, thus the high school spends about $4,500 on their
copy paper. Mrs. Mosher informed us that “…various amounts of pre
3-hole punched paper and colored paper are also used,” and it is
concluded from this that this paper is not from recycled products
either.
These were some of the questions that I had
asked Mrs. Mosher: “…how much of the Greenwich Central Junior-Senior
High School budget is spent on paper products such as computer
paper, lined paper, envelopes, and maintenance paper products in the
current of past school year?” This question was not directly
answered, but given the cost and amount of plain white paper used,
G.C.S. Junior-Senior High spends about $4,500. But it is not know
how much of the budget is spent on lined paper, colored paper, or
any other paper products.
I next asked, “…of those paper products, what
percent are made from recycled paper?”
This question was not directly answered either,
but it is concluded, to the best of our knowledge, that little of
G.C.S.’s paper products, other than the paper towels made of 40%
recycled fiber, are made from recycled paper.
“From where are the school’s paper products
purchased, and do they (the suppliers) offer recycled paper?”
www.ricoh-usa.com provided no information on their paper
products, let alone recycled paper products(edited).
My original hypothesis was that our school used
about 25% recycled paper products, but I was incorrect. To the best
of my knowledge, the Greenwich Central Junior-Senior High uses
little in the way of recycled paper products.
Ethan Oswald, Grade 8, Greenwich
Painstaking is the only way to describe the
experience that I went through trying to find an answer to my
question. I searched with many different keyword searches and every
time some recycling plant in Oregon came up as either the first or
the second. Unfortunately the information was unavailable. It has
become quite apparent that if there is the information available it
has to be more easily accessible to the people seeking information.
Left with very limited options, I decided to
email the head of recycling in Washington County, Mr. William
Grimmke. Upon receiving his response, I had my first valid source of
information on recycling plants in upstate New York. Mr. Grimmke
informed us that all of our school’s recycled paper is shipped to
Fort Edward and that surprisingly virgin paper is 5% less expensive
than recycled paper, but in another recycling plant it is 10%.
According to the statistics we have been given and with the
approximate average amount of paper used in Greenwich Central School
(GCS) being 1.4 thousand pounds of paper buying virgin paper ($45 a
case) instead of recycled ($50 a case) GCS will save $150 dollars a
year buying virgin paper.
However, if we consider that we are loosing
significant numbers of trees, electricity, and gallons of oil, the
cost of non-recycled paper increases. Although companies claim that
recycled paper costs more than regular paper that is not always true
according to Conservatree.com the prices of coated paper is the same
if not lower than the price of virgin paper.
Recycling is much more of a problem now because
people didn’t see it when we needed it the most, so now it is not
only or right but our duty to preserve our land for generations to
come.
The irony of the situation is that we are going
through an oil crisis and yet we are willingly throwing away our oil
on things that we don’t need like non-recycled paper. Without our
natural elements we will not only be suffering from the
environmentalist stand point but also economically.
Bibliography
http://www.resourcefulschools.org/html/facts.html
http://www.recycleworks.org/paper/paper_wbr.html
http://www.sutta.com/environmental.html
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/abbey/ap/ap03/ap03-3/ap03-316.html
http://www.paperrecycles.org
http://www.nationalgridus.com/niagaramohawk/home/rates/4_abt_elec.asp
*http://www.crazycolour.com/os/recycling_11.shtml
**
http://www.epa.gov/msw/
***http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/paper.htm
http://www.resourcefulschools.org/html/facts.html |