Let’s face it: it’s absurdly easy to recycle in Mountain Lakes High School. While there are specific rules for recyclable materials in Mountain Lakes (and a full list of them can be found here), the high school distills the recycling process into three basic components—paper, cans and plastics, and trash—represented by three clearly labeled containers in almost every room. Yet, in my personal observations, Mountain Lakes High School students tend to discard perfectly recyclable waste like paper documents and plastic bottles into black trash cans. Furthermore, it’s all too easy to spot non-recyclable trash in blue containers labeled for recycling—including the container in the cafeteria that is literally branded with the universal recycling symbol and shaped like a recyclable water bottle.
While what I see personally is not substantial evidence for any claim about recycling in Mountain Lakes High School, it certainly seems obvious that the high school has a massive recycling problem. But where does this problem originate? Is it a lack of knowledge about recycling, indifference, or perhaps even the widespread assumption that nothing in the high school gets recycled in the end?
Regardless of the reason, Mountain Lakes High School has an obligation to improve its recycling track record. I sat down with two head custodial staff members, Mr. Dunn and Mr. Snowden, and Principal Carlson of Briarcliff Middle School to dig into our recycling predicament.
A Lack of Infrastructure or a Lack of Will?
When it comes to waste management, many organizations struggle to properly dispose of their recyclable waste. For instance, a case study on Reliable Skip found that a local high school was having trouble getting its recyclable waste to the appropriate facilities. Despite having a recycling can on-site, the majority of the high school’s recyclable waste ending up in the regular trash, with only cardboard packaging from food service workers being regularly recycled. When asked about the school’s recycling practices, staff members admitted that very little of their recyclable waste was actually being properly disposed of. This highlights the importance of developing effective waste management strategies and ensuring that all employees and students are educated on proper recycling practices. Effective waste management extends to various aspects of an organization’s operations, including packaging. For instance, businesses dealing with bulk packaging orders can explore solutions like eliter-packaging.com Packaging Machinery to streamline their processes. While this doesn’t directly address waste disposal, efficient packaging machinery can minimize unnecessary packaging materials, contributing to a reduction in overall waste generation. Implementing such equipment aligns with the broader goal of responsible waste management and underscores the importance of holistic strategies to minimize environmental impact.
The biggest culprit for the lack of recycling is contamination. Yes, a lot of recyclable waste is thrown into the trash, but the greater problem is the amount of non-recyclable waste that is discarded in recycling bins. If any contaminant such as food or beverage liquid makes its way into the recycling bins, then all the contents of the bins are rendered trash. This rule also applies to recyclable materials stained with contaminants, such as coffee cups with residual liquid. When students throw contaminated materials into recycling bins, a phenomenon that occurs most frequently in the cafeteria, custodians have no choice but to empty the bins into the trash. They simply do not have the time to sort the sheer amount of waste by hand and correct for our inability to distinguish between trash and recyclables.
Contamination is not a problem that is unique to the high school. According to Mr. Dunn, who also works with the Mountain Lakes Borough’s Department of Public Works, Mountain Lakes residents frequently dispose of contaminants like unclean oil drums and misplaced plastic waste in the Borough Recycling Center. This misplacement ultimately hurts taxpayers. Mountain Lakes is charged a fee for every forty-yard container that becomes contaminated in the Recycling Center—a fee that applies to the high school as well.
Mr. Dunn and Mr. Snowden made it clear that Mountain Lakes High School contains all the necessary recycling infrastructure and that its custodial staff are properly equipped to follow recycling guidelines. If only we disposed of recyclables correctly from the start, we could drastically reduce our unnecessary waste and contamination penalty fees. Although recycling could improve in Mountain Lakes’s other schools as well, some schools have a significantly cleaner recycling record than the high school does. Mr. Dunn and Mr. Snowden have oversight over all buildings in the Mountain Lakes School District, and they informed me that Briarcliff Middle School in particular does an excellent job with recycling. I was curious to find out why.
Learning from Middle School Students
When I interviewed Briarcliff’s Principal Carlson about the middle school’s recycling program, he articulated that there are multiple natural factors that make recycling more convenient in Briarcliff than the high school. First, since middle school students are younger and more compliant than high school students, it is easier to enforce recycling rules and trust that students will follow them. Second, the middle school is much smaller than the high school. Everyone eats in the same cafeteria, and students eat with everyone else from the same grade level at the same time. It is easier to have two or three teachers stand as cafeteria supervisors and remind students to recycle properly when disposing of their lunchtime waste.
What makes Briarcliff special, however, is its community’s conscious commitment to recycling. Teachers go out of their way to educate students about proper recycling rules. Briarcliff’s former head custodian (who is now retired) made sure to enforce recycling rules and picked out incorrectly discarded waste whenever time allowed. Parents are also eager to join the effort: they actively work with Briarcliff’s administration to spread awareness about recycling and even carry out an educational composting initiative with Briarcliff’s composters to reduce food waste.
Most noteworthy of all, the administration worked with Briarcliff’s Environmental Club last year to involve the school in the Plastic Film Recycling Challenge, sponsored by wood-alternative manufacturing company Trex. In the challenge, students bring plastic waste from home or school to a recycling bin in Briarcliff, which is then emptied at one of Trex’s local drop-off sites. Many other schools have their students do the same. The school that recycles the greatest amount of plastic waste is rewarded with a bench made from recycled plastic. Thanks to Briarcliff’s participation in the challenge and students’ enthusiasm, Briarcliff reduced its non-recycled trash by 60% and brought in 350 pounds of plastic recyclables.
Briarcliff’s recycling record just goes to show that effective recycling is indeed possible. However, positive recycling outcomes can only be achieved with a commitment on the part of students, administrators and teachers, and the overall community.
Looking forward
Ultimately, there is no difference in recycling between home and school. If every home in Mountain Lakes effectively separates trash from recyclables, then it is logical to think that recycling at the high school should proceed just as efficiently. As this is not the case, it appears that the environmentally-conscious mindsets we carry at home do not translate smoothly to recycling in Mountain Lakes High School.
But as Briarcliff has shown, Mountain Lakes High School has the potential to become a recycling exemplar. We must start with education. Our three labeled waste disposal bins are objectively easy to understand, but we need to spread awareness of contaminated materials making their way into recycling containers. Moreover, to combat “recycling apathy” and willful indifference, we need to do away with recycling myths and assure students that the high school will indeed recycle if items are discarded correctly. Finally, we need to inspire enthusiasm within the community by promoting recycling events such as Trex’s Plastic Film Recycling Challenge and supporting the efforts of student-driven groups like the high school’s Environmental Club. If students have confidence in the Mountain Lakes High School community, then we can make a significant recycling impact.
The value we place on our environment is literally engraved into our town’s name: Mountain Lakes, the proud union of natural features unburdened by trash and environmental negligence. So, let us do right to the environmental values of our town and school. Let us recycle.
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