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 7^th 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.

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