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Rutland Middle School – Grade 7 Recycling Challenge

My grade 7 students at Rutland Middle School were challenged to come up with a way to contribute to our school community. We brain stormed ideas and decided to implement a more comprehensive bottle/can recycling program as there was currently very little in place. I did some research, discovered the Return-it School contest online and signed them up. From there my classes sorted all the school’s bottle/can recycling. The classes were horrified at how poor our school recycling program previously was, and how gross the bins were. We identified and wrote down the main problems with the current system and students paired up to create a PowerPoint presentation to educate their peers. From there, each mentorship class (mixed grade 6-8) got a presentation from one of the pairs to increase awareness of the situation. We noticed an improvement initially but only to a certain point. We then brainstormed why and came up with a poster to place on and above recycling bins to make it more obvious. The students were enthused by their progress and leadership involvement within the school.

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New Return-It School Program