At Tecumseh High School in rural Indiana, a group of 15 students and their environmental class teacher set up a goal for their school: to reduce its waste impact on landfills as much as possible. How? By doing research, planning, collaborating, and creating awareness!
After having recycled paper in the school for years, Tecumseh High School wanted to take their efforts a step further. Through the W5 project and with the support from the Alcoa Foundation, they were able to start recycling metal, plastics and cardboard throughout the whole school.
Before implementing this new project, the students did research on waste and its effect on the environment. The information they gathered not only helped them gain a better understanding of the importance of separating waste, but also increased the awareness of everyone at the school, as informative posters were created and disseminated. Motivated by the alarming numbers they found during their research, the students started the process of implementing the schoolwide recycling plan.
First, the environmental class contacted nearby schools who they knew had elaborate recycling programmes. This helped them establish the different resources they would need and the organisational processes they would have to carry out. Then, local providers that could come to the school and pick up the recycled waste were contacted.
The head custodian helped pinpoint the activities that generated the most waste in the school, and accordingly plan where the bins should be located, and how often they should be emptied. The creation of this plan required great coordination with the cafeteria manager, and the school principal, as well as the head custodian.
“It’s amazing how much recycling has reduced the amount of trash in our dumpster. We should have started this years ago.” - Susan Smith, custodian
However, the team of students did not stop at the local district for their research and resources, but rather took their project a step further by contacting PepsiCo and asking them for their support. The positive effects of the projects were recognized, and they offered to provide the school with three large bins, to help them recycle plastic bottles in the school gym and cafeteria. Additional large bins were purchased and placed in hallways and classrooms, to make sure recycling did not stop at the doors of the cafeteria, and that everyone in the school could easily contribute to the schoolwide recycling.
The only thing left to do was to communicate the new recycling strategy with the rest of the school - students and staff. To do so, the environmental class created signs to put on the bins, as well as in the hallways and outside, to inform what waste should go in which bin. Together, Tecumseh High School kept 30 bags of plastic bottles away from the landfill in just a few months! They furthermore recycled two large bins of cardboard a week, resulting in the school dumpster for general waste only having to be emptied half as often as before the implementation of the programme.
But even more important is the change in attitude of a lot of students and staff towards recycling. By allowing this change of behaviour within the school, Tecumseh High School’s environmental class has empowered individuals to take action to reduce the whole community’s footprint on landfills.
“Even though we are a small school, we still have the ability to make a big difference in our community and world.” - Stella Hahn, senior
The Alcoa W5 project of Tecumseh High School supports the following SDGs:
