highlander TRASH TALK Does H mestead recycle?
the
Vol. 33, No. 3
Jan 24 ,2014
Homestead High School, Mequon
By Erin Connolly
G
ray garbage cans silently stand guard in When does recycling take place? every classroom, every commons. They In this case, “seeing is believing” may play a role in the reason bulge to maximum capacity in the cafwhy there is such a high percentage of people who say Homeeteria, filled with banana peels and stead does not recycle. Mr. Thompson said that “the process half-empty milk cartons. They are the targets of of cleaning and collecting recycling occurs [in the] evecountless flying wads of scraps crumpled into a nings between 3 p.m. and 12 a.m., well after students and ball and shot Kobe-style with the hope of makstaff are out of the building, so they simply don’t see it.” ing a miraculous across-the-classroom buzzerThe daily recycling routine at Homestead is carbeater teachers despise. Standing inconspicuried out by custodians who are “trained exactly what ously in their shadows, colorful recycling bins type of products are standard waste and what prodrarely gain the attention of passing students. ucts are recyclable and held accountable for recyPerhaps those who nonchalantly pitch recycling,” according to Mr. Thompson. “Nightly they clables truthfully did not see the bins dwarfed empty both the waste baskets and recycling baskets by trashcans. Perhaps they just couldn’t care separately. Standard waste/garbage goes in the comless whether or not their Snapple bottle ends pactor and recycling in the recycling compactor.” up in a landfill, alongside other glass and “Our [district’s recycling] contract does include A poll of 200 students and faculty plastic containers. Or perhaps they assumed disposing of recyclables properly but does not include reveals the majority do not believe it would be pointless to put the bottle in its separating the trash from the recycling in each wasterightful place, since it is assumed that evbasket,” Mr. Thompson added. “Not only would this Homestead recycles. take a great deal of time and expense to the district but erything goes to the same dumpster anyway. the expectation at Homestead is that the staff and students take responsibility for themselves when it comes Why do the majority believe to recycling and make sure to dispose of their waste in Homestead doesn’t recycle? the appropriate containers. Once a recyclable product “I think Homestead tries to make it seem is thrown in a standard wastebasket it becomes waste like they recycle, but in reality all of the trash and is considered contaminated (and vice versa).” gets dumped into the same bin and is never recycled,” Christal Hearn, sophomore, said. Where does it all go? “It’s not obvious where things belong,” Mr. “We commingle all of our recycling that Joseph Przybylski, social studies teacher, said. comes from the classrooms,” Mr. Thompson said. Without looking carefully, it is possible to misCommingled recycling, also known as single interpret the recycling bin as a garbage can since stream, is “a system in which paper, plastics, metthey are usually the same size and shape. The als and other recyclable materials are mixed in one confusion resonates among the faculty as well. collection location rather than being sorted sepa“I think even the staff is kind of like, I don’t rately,” according to Mr. Thompson. This allows for know, do we [recycle]?” Mr. Przybylski said. the use of only one container for all of the recycling. After collection, the recyclables are taken to How can students help? a Material Recovery Facility, which uses “a comMr. Przybylski, as well as several other teachbination of hand sorting, sensors, magnets and ers around the school, provides a bag to collect gravity to sort the materials,” according to the arstudents’ recycling and encourage participaticle “ReLoop: What is Single Stream Recycling?” tion, “which if it goes in [the recycling bin], Machines and conveyor belts then divide the recycling just goes in the garbage,” Mr. Joseph Ordinans, into cardboard, aluminum, steel, paper products and difmath teacher, said. This system has proven efferent types of plastic, while workers manually remove fective because it gets students actively engagany trash, plastic bags and the few materials not sorted ing in recycling. Mr. Ordinans said that he asks correctly. The separated materials are then baled and sold. all of his students to do their part, and “rarely is there recycling material in my garbage Why is recycling important? can. My students are actually participating.” Lauren Watchmaker, senior and president of the Students Keeping It Environmentally Safe (SKIES) Does Homestead recycle? Club, explained how recycling “helps both the A recent survey of 200 students and faculty environment and the economy. The EPA (Envishowed that 91 percent of those surveyed believed ronmental Protection Agency) estimates that inHomestead does not recycle. Two percent were cinerating 10,000 tons of waste creates one job, landunsure, while only seven percent assumed Homefilling it creates six, but recycling it creates 36 jobs.” stead does recycle. According to this survey, there There is no doubt that recycling is very important is a widespread belief among students and staff to the environment, especially in schools. With over a that Homestead does not recycle. “The Mequonthousand students and staff at Homestead, the school Thiensville School District recycles in many difproduces a lot of waste and a lot of recyclable materials. ferent ways so I’m not sure why so many students Students play a key role in recycling such products, and staff would think we do not,” Mr. Kyle Thompas well as in the efficiency of proper disposal. As Mr. son, director of maintenance and operations in Thompson said, “The more the kids recycle, putting Illustrations by Katie Bandurski the Mequon-Thiensville School District, said. items in the proper containers, the better it helps us.”
What do students and faculty think?
2%
7%
91%
What’s Inside
{
2
School board vacancies
Yes
4-5
Winter in Wisconsin
Maybe
7
Price of eating organic
8
{
No
Coach Keel honored