Recycling at Kingman High
   General Science increases environmental awareness

by Katie Aich

Mr. Chisam’s general science class is setting the standard for years to come by starting our first plastic recycling project. These seven kids made all the calls - and they’re calling all the shots. By writing an article for the Leader Courier, they hope to get the community involved. It’s no wonder why these students are so determined…. just look at their biggest influence. Mr. Chisam, who considers himself a majorly green person, recycles paper, plastic, and pretty much anything else one could think of, in his household. He is even on the waiting list for an electric truck! Now that’s someone who can call themselves a friend of the environment.

Every Monday the students take their bottles (about 50 a week), pull off the labels, and throw them into a "Waste Management" recycling bin. Thanks to two of the students, Chris Wenerstrom^’12 and Colin Lannon^’12, Waste Management will pick the bottles up free of charge. Although the number of bottles recycled is increasing every week, the students still feel that too many bottles end up carelessly being tossed into the trash. Zach Myers^’12 feels that if they put out more than just one bin for the bottles, they’ll get better results.

Their hardest task isn’t cleaning out the bottles- it’s encouraging our student body to participate. By hanging up signs, they hope to inform students that recycling is available to them here at KHS, but is that enough? They’ve also discussed competitions between the four classes and, of course, continuing their letters to the Leader Courier. However, they still don’t feel that the students are taking advantage of this new opportunity.

Most of the students actually realize how easy it is to recycle to help the environment, and the habits they’re learning now will surely help mold them into environmentally conscious individuals. We can only hope that our student body will learn from these students by making recycling one of their own personal habits.

Recycling is a wonderful start to a "greener" future, and we have high expectations for these students who strive to change our school. Just remember not to ignore the signs taped up along the walls; "Please Recycle". If they keep up this project, we can be sure of one thing; our landfills will be spared and our environment will be better off, one plastic bottle at a time.