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Our goal is to get
one million tons of
paper out of the trash!
Will you join the
campaign and do everything you can to help us meet this ambitious goal?
Money
Recycled
paper is
worth money!
Earth
Recycling
paper reduces
global warming!
Paper
It’s
not just newspapers anymore!
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Community
Spotlight
Each month,
MassRecycle will shed the spotlight on a community and their work on
Mass Recycles Paper! This page will always be under construction
so please keep checking back.
"Go Green"
Campaign a Success with Agawam Students (updated
9/4/2008)
In
2007, the City of Agawam
endorsed a resolution to join the Mass
Recycles Paper Campaign and this launched the City’s “Go Green”
recycling
education campaign. Tracy DeMaio, Agawam
Environmental Project Coordinator, said the town’s recycling education
campaign
will evolve to include businesses, schools, and residents. Since
the
signing of the resolution supporting the Mass Recycles Paper Campaign,
various
organizations in Agawam
have been working diligently to find ways to encourage recycling.
One
local business instrumental in supporting the public school system was
Geissle’rs Supermarket. Geissler’s
Supermarket donated 2,000 brown bags for the students of Agawam to
decorate with their own unique messages
to educate shoppers about recycling. “It’s such a fun project that says
so
much. Hopefully this student “Brown Bags Go Green” art project
will help
continue to send the message home about recycling and taking care of
the
environment,” DeMaio said. It is
expected that this partnership with Geissler’s Supermarket will
continue every
Earth Day and America Recycles Day in Agawam.
During
the 2007-2008 school year, 93 teachers
from the Agawam Elementary and Middle Schools enrolled in the MassDEP
Green
Team. Students and teachers signed a “Green Team” pledge to
reduce trash,
prevent pollution, and conserve resources. At the Middle School,
students
and staff members worked together to make necessary changes to increase
their
recycling participation. Equipment changes included:
- Increasing
each classroom recycling bin size from 5 gallon mini
bins to 14 gallon bins
- Adding
recycling bin locations to include paper and bottle and
can recycling in the teachers break room and all office spaces
- Strategically
placing 96 gallon toters on each floor and wing of
the school to allow students to empty classroom bins as needed
- Provided
all administrative staff members with office style
“skinny” bins at their desks
- Created
a central shredding area for confidential documents
In
addition to these equipment changes and
improvements, the teaching staff made it a point to keep the
environmental
message fresh and new every day by including the following activities:
-
Assembly
presentation sponsored by the DPW for BJ Hickman to kick
off recycling campaign.
- Students
designed posters to encourage recycling and positive
environmental practices
- Tuesday/Thursday
Recycling Trivia Contest each week for students
to win recycling contest prizes
- Art
classes participated in a Brown Bags Go Green Project as
well as designing recycled product clothing.
At
the Agawam
High School
the spirit of recycling also spread quickly!
The recycling program, designed to operate as a
team, including
municipal administrators, teachers, custodians, parents and students
has proven
to be very successful.
Equipment
changes and activities at the High
School included:
- Strategically
placing 96 gallon toters on each floor and wing of
the school to allow students to empty classroom bins and beverage
containers as
needed
- Additional
toters were brought in to the school for quarterly
“Locker Clean Out” days
- Recycling
Centers with signs were designed and set up in the
cafeteria to begin beverage container recycling! These
centers were monitored by different
Environmental Club Members each day.
- “You’ve
Been Caught” campaign implemented –where students were
given coupons worth $1 each if they were “caught” doing something
environmentally responsible. The coupons
could then be spent at the school store or snack station during lunch.
“The
spirit of recycling last year was remarkable” at the schools, said
DeMaio. Since the signing of the resolution, each school in Agawam has made
positive
changes to their existing recycling programs. Planning for
the
2008-2009 school year is currently underway and the Middle School and
High
School equipment changes and activities will be used as models for the
remaining schools. It is without a doubt
and expected that the spirit of recycling will continue to spread. DeMaio credits the teachers, students and
custodial staff for the increase of recycling at each school.
“Recycling
in the schools is really a team effort and we have a great team working
towards
making our schools greener.” |
