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
