Students Read, Write And Recycle!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/students-read-write-and-recycle-2012-05-07
5/7/2012 Published in Market Watch by PRNewswire
Picture: This is a picture of the winner of the "Read, Write, and Recycle" event recieving their $1,000 check towards science and athletic programs.
Summary: Merced Elementary School from West Covina, California came in first in the event called "Read, Write, Recycle!” This even was an effort to demonstrate the importance and value of recycling to students K-5 in the West Covina Unified School District. The students who won received $1,000 to go towards the science and athletic program at their school plus a pizza party. The students earned this by recycling 4,514.7 pounds of plastic, aluminum, glass, and other valuable materials. Vine Elementary School came in 2nd place while Cameron Elementary School came in 3rd. Together; the three schools recycled a total of 11,014.2 pounds of material throughout the competition. Throughout all three schools, a total of 1,400 students participated in this recycling event. This program is funded by the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and supported by Keep California Beautiful, San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps (SGVCC), and the West Covina Unified School District. Steve Russell, vice president of ACC's Plastics Division, says "We're always looking for ways to increase recycling awareness, and this group of partners built a program that delivered fantastic results." The Senator even recognized the student's efforts and are encouraging them to continue to recycle. "You can already see how a program like this instills important values in our children. I hope it inspires them to continue recycling at school and at home," says the principal of Merced Elementary School, Gordon Pfitzer.
Opinion/Reflection: I think that this is a great program. If the adults of the future are learning to recycle that only means that our issue with pollution will get better. The problem now is the adults have not learned the importance of recycling as a child, so they may not be used to recycling. If the students get used to recycling at a young age, our future will be bright. It is crazy to see that over 11,000 pounds of plastic and other recyclable goods were recycled instead of thrown in the trash just between three schools. I think that our schools in Pennsylvania and even all around the nation should begin to have recycling events with money prizes. People will do anything for money, and if they are awarded $1,000 to recycle, they will be more motivated to do so. In science class, we learned about all of the plastic and glass bottles and jars getting into the ocean and affecting aquatic life, and if all schools have a recycling program like this, there may be less and less pollution going into the water.
Questions:
1. Do you feel if an event like this came to our school, that it will be helpful? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think recycling is so important?
3. How do you feel about the plastic and glass in the oceans due to lack of recycling?
Opinion/Reflection:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jen when she says this is a great program. It is very inspiring to see that people are trying to make a difference in our world. It is so crazy that between 3 schools they were able to collect over 11,000 pounds of material to recycle during the competetion. It is so crazy that they were able to recycle that much material and that truly helped the earth. I can relate this to the problem we are having in our oceans. In the center of some oceans there are areas called dead zones and they are areas that have plastic and all these pollutants in it that could have been recycled. If more people start to become aware and do things like this school did we may be able to start decreasing the size of the dead zones in our ocean.
Answer to question 1:
I do believe if this event came to our school it would be helpful. When ever someone goes out of their way to do something to make the earth cleaner it is always helpful. It is not only helpful that it cleans the earth but that it makes others aware as well. People start to hear about when people do events like that and maybe someone else might become inspired to do the same thing.
Opinion: I agree with Ryan and Jen. I think this is a really great program. It is good that people are begining to make a difference. I think it is amazing that these three schools were able to collect over 11,000 pounds of material. I think an event like this should come to our school. It would be great for our school to have one of these competitions because I believe our school would do very well. Also if an event like this came to our school it would raise awareness about recycling. Like Ryan said if more people recycled areas in the oceans called dead zones could be decreased.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question three: I think it is sad that so much pollutants are ending up in our oceans. If people would just take a little time to recycle there plastic and glass the oceans would be a lot less polluted. It is great that people are beginning to make a difference. People are capable of doing so much if they put their minds to it.
Opinion: I think this is a very good program and im glad it was started. It's crazy that they recycled over 11,000 pounds of material. Hopefully this program will continue and maybe even spread. As Ryan said, there is a problem in our oceans with dead zones. This program may be able to help them. Even the senator recognized this program! Maybe one day it could come to our school and have an impact on the people in our are. I really hope that this program spreads and continues to raise awareness about recycling.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 3. It makes me angry to see and hear about the trash in the ocean. Many sea animals are being harmed negatively because of it. It is already a huge problem but if it isn't stopped it will escalate. I really hope people wake up and see what we are doing to these oceans.
Opinion: Congrats to the Merced Elementary School! I'm glad schools are taking notice in recycling and making the world a better place. 4,514.7 pounds of aluminum, plastic, and glass is amazing and should be an example for other schools and people throughout the earth. It's also good that kids are aware of recycling at such a young age. Companies like ACC and SGVCC are great and should be proud of themselves because they are helping a great cause. At my home sometimes I accidentally throw recyclables into the trash can because I only have a trash cans inside of my house. Now I will try to actually throw the plastics and other recyclables into the recycling bin. I feel like our school would do great in a competition like this cause we have so much school spirit and love the environment as well.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to #1: I feel that it would be extremely helpful. Just reading this article made me realize I need to recycle more so an event at our school would definitely help people to recycle more. Not only will it help us to recycle but it will also help to bring our school together and become closer. This would also be able to help their family life because they would carry these actions on into their households.