You have may have noticed that all around SBRHS there are many recycling bins.  There is one in each classroom and multiple in the student dining center.  I talked to Mr. Campos, head of maintenance and grounds at SBRHS, about the recycling program.

“We’re recycling right now 75% of our trash.” Mr. Campos said.  He said that the school has been recycling for around three years, but only recently the school began to recycle as much as it does.

“We can recycle plastic, paper, cardboard, almost everything. 90% of the stuff we can recycle today,” Mr. Campos relayed. “When we first started recycling, we couldn’t recycle a lot of this stuff but now we can mix it all in the same dumpster.  That’s the big thing, we don’t have to separate it.”  Since the school does not have to separate out each type of recyclable, there is a lot less hassle in making sure that everything was put in the right place, therefore allowing for more recycling.

Besides the environmental benefits associated with recycling, the economic benefits of recycling for the school are huge.  “We used to have a 30 yard compact dumpster, which we still have, we used to empty it every week,” Mr. Campos said. “We are probably emptying it every three weeks now because the recycling is taking care of everything else.” He went on to say that it cost $2000 every time the dumpster is emptied.  That means that since school is in session for roughly 36 weeks a year, the school is saving $48,000-$54,000 (he said later in the interview it was now being emptied every three to four weeks) annually thanks to recycling.

There are many things about the recycling program that students should be aware of.  Just the acknowledgement of the recycling program at the school will help the school continue on its green path (whether green refers to the environment or money).  It is important to note that all bins, even those in the classrooms, can be used for anything that can be recycled.  It is also beneficial that the students know what can and cannot be recycled.  Besides food and Styrofoam, anything can be recycled.  This helps the school maximize its recycling ability, which means the school can save more money that can be spent on other things.

“We just need to keep doing what we are doing,” remarked Mr. Campos “We need to stay on a good track, because we are saving money.”