Jul 14, 2022

The students have been busy recycling this year and the parish school’s new Recycling Club, made up of over 50 students in grades kindergarten through seventh and led by the school’s technology teacher Miss Anne Riede have been learning so much. Some of the items the students have been collecting like paper and plastic bags are making the earth a better place to live by saving on landfill space, using the products to their fullest life and reducing greenhouse emissions, but some of the items students are recycling will benefit different local organizations or the school itself. The school’s new bottle filling stations have saved over 30,000 plastic water bottles so far and collected pop tabs are going to help Ronald McDonald House Charities raise extra money for patients in need. All the plastic bottle caps and plastic lids the parish school collected were turned into Plastics-R-Unique, a company in Wadsworth that manufactures products with recycled polyethylene plastics such as outdoor benches and tables. The company’s CAP Program (Caring About our Planet) is designed specifically for schoolchildren to encourage recycling. The students and families at the parish school collected over 250 pounds of plastic lids and caps, enough plastic to make a six-foot park bench that will be used on the campus grounds.

The school has also teamed up with Summit e-Waste Recycling Solutions and asked parish families to drop off at the school any old televisions, desktop computers, monitors, cords and cables that were at the end of their useful life. Some of these products will be re-sold and refurbished and some will be dismantled. According to the company, e-waste is the fastest growing part of the municipal solid waste stream and the students thought this was a great program to support. In return, St. Sebastian Parish School received a check from Summit e-waste, with the value being based off the weight of what was collected. The company has now placed an e-Waste Recycling bin on the parish property and parishioners are being encouraged to drop off their old electronic items in the bin.

The Recycling Club was so popular at the parish school this past year and the students learned so many valuable lessons about protecting our planet and sustainability that plans for next year’s program are already in the works.