Board Present

8/3/2019 Board Present

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The Recycling Challenge

A report to the School Board on our

recycling program at Black Mountain.

Presented by

Black Mountain Elementary School Students.

The Recycling Challenge was made possible

by a grant from the Arizona Department of

Environmental Quality.



Come up with a plan to improve the school¶s

system for dealing with solid waste (paper and

plastic). Implement and test the plan.

Measure how effective the plan was.

Research if recycling makes sense.

Share the results of the work with others.

Present results to the School Board to convince

them to begin recycling efforts at other schools.


BMES received funding from ADEQ to:



The Recycling ChallengeWhat¶s the plan?




BMES Master Waste Reduction PlanGoals:

Improve our school¶s current system for dealing

with garbage by recycling paper and plastic to

reduce amount of garbage going to the landfill.

Measure how much we improve our school¶s

current system for dealing with waste.




To accomplish this we must take the following steps:

Label and distribute two recycling boxes per classroom.

Explain to each class how to recycle. Provide written

instructions to post in class. For 4th and 5th explain how to measure paper, plastic,

and garbage at end of each day.

For K-3 and other areas explain how they need to put

recycling out to be measured on Friday.

Record measurements in data journals. Take recyclables to bin. As needed or at end of week.

Evaluate with tables and graphs as needed to update web

site.

Report results to board at end of project.



The Recycling ChallengeWhat can nature teach us?



The fourth grade made worm

condominiums and learned that

worms are important to the

earth because they break downdead leaves and other waste.

Worms help the world recycle

waste.





Some classes built

Powerpoint presentationsand others built

Inspiration concept maps

to show what we learned.



The fifth grade worked with

plastic and other polymers.

We did different experiments

with polymers, and learned that

no living thing can break down

plastic because they don¶t have

the chemical scissors to break the polymer apart.

The Recycling ChallengeWhy does plastic need to be recycled?



We also took a nature hike to

see decomposers and what

they can break down.

We saw termites that have

microbes in their gut that

break down the cellulose in

wood. Cellulose is an

example of a natural polymer.




Classes made cartoons, Powerpoints, and Hyperstudio stacks to showwhat we learned.




The Recycling ChallengeHow much waste is there at lunch?

Mrs. Severance and Mrs. Kappel¶s classes

found out how much the school wasted in

the cafeteria at lunch. The first thing we

did was to collect the data during all four

lunches.

We separated the trash bins by food,

Styrofoam, other, plastic, and paper.

Then we recorded the data needed to find

volume and mass. We used yard sticks for helping us find

the volume of waste in a trashcan.

We used spring scales and a bathroom

scale for mass.



We used the data to create graphs on Microsoft Excel. We

printed out the graphs and used the information to complete an

executive summary. We were very surprised by the amount of

Food and Styrofoam collected. Our Summaries had six sections:

What does the data tell you?

What kind of waste has the most impact on the landfill?

What strategies can you suggest to reduce the amount of waste?

How could you improve the collection of data?

Should you worry about the amount of waste created during

lunch?




Here are some of the graphs.




We asked everyone to bring an Earth friendly lunch on Earth Day.We also asked people to eat everything on their plate. On Earth

Day our classes did another lunch waste audit to compare the data

from our first lunch audit to see if the waste amount would

decrease.

Here is what we found out:

Mass of paper went down by at least half in three out of four lunches

Mass of food also went down by half in two lunches and one to two kilogramsin the other two

Volume of styrofoam and food went down significantly.

The percentages of overall waste thrown away remained about the same.




The Recycling ChallengeHow does technology help recycling?

The third graders learned that

technology is part of recycling.

They used shredded tennis shoes

and made playground cushions fromthem.

They tested their cushions by

dropping eggs at different heights to

simulate the fall of children. Sincecompanies have figured out how to

shred old tennis shoes instead of

throwing them away in the landfill,

they are recycled in a useful way.



The Recycling ChallengeCollecting our Data

The Recycling Club gathered

the recycling bins from K-3

classrooms and support areas

on Fridays. The RecyclingClub then weighed the bins

and emptied them. Sometimes

we did waste audits on the

classes. The data was entered

into Excel.

After that we made graphs of

the data to show who was

doing the best in recycling.



The Recycling ChallengeSharing our data

Totals so far:

Paper:

1782.6 kg

3921.6 lbs

Plastic:

321.4 kg

707.1 lbs




Sample graph from support areas




Principal¶s First Waste Audit:




Based on the data, if this trend continues, the principal will

waste 1.3 kilograms or 2.9 pounds of paper a month that

could be recycled. After discussing the problem with the

principal, the Recycling Club Waste Audit Team hasformulated the following efficiency improvement plan for the

principal:

A small bin will be placed in the principal's office for

paper and plastic

The recycling club will check during our Friday recyclingto empty the small bins into the bigger bin.

The principal will be audited in the future to see how

she is doing.




The rest of our data can be found at:

www.scire.com/recycle/bmes_recycles/

It will be relocated to the Black

Mountain Web site by Brenda

Howard (BMES Webmaster) in thenear future.

Black Mountain

Elementary School

Bobcats Recycling

Cave Creek, Arizona

Recycho the worm says:

Just recycle it!



The Recycling ChallengeWhere do we go from here?

Our work has shown that:

Students are responsible enough to run a recycling

program Recycling reduces waste that goes to a landfill,

which saves land for other uses

Nature provides proof that recycling is important

Recycling is part of nature, but nature needs our help because it can¶t recycle everything.

Our recycling efforts next year should be focused

on paper




Where do we go from here?

We have shown through our recycling efforts that we

can fulfill our Kids at Hope pledge:

I am a kid at hope. I am talented, smart, and

capable of success. I have dreams for the future

and I will climb to reach those goals and dreams

everyday.

One of our goals this year was to start a recycling

program at Black Mountain. We encourage the Board

and District to continue the work that Black Mountain

students have started.



Black Mountain

Elementary School

Bobcats Recycling

Cave Creek, Arizona

Recycho the worm says:

Just recycle it!




Thanks

We would like to take this time to thank the following people for helping to bring recycling to Black Mountain

Elementary School:

Pam Sitton, Principal Black Mountain Nick D¶Andrea, President ABCO Recycling

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

The teachers at Black Mountain that opened their

classrooms to lessons on recycling The students at BMES, the reason recycling worked.

And, most important, the members of the Recycling

Club and the lunch audit students from Mrs. S &

Mrs. K¶s classes.

Board Present

Documents

Transcript of Board Present