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  • The cafeteria at Grant Line Elementary has posters above cans reminding students which items are recyclable and which are garbage. Staff photo by C.E. Branham

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May 14, 2010

Learning how easy it is to be green: Grant Line students recycled 4,000 pounds of trash in April as part of new program

By TARA HETTINGER Tara.Hettinger@newsandtribune.com

FLOYD COUNTY — With gift cards, movie passes and offers to sit in the special seats in the cafeteria, René Collins, food service manager at Grant Line Elementary, is doing all that she can to encourage good recycling habits at the school.

And it’s worked.

In April, students recycled more than 4,000 pounds of trash, more than double what they did in March, Collins said. After only starting the student portion of the recycling program in January, the school has reduced its trash pick-up from six times a week to three, Collins said.

“Rewarding and telling the kids what a great job they’re doing helps them realize what a big deal it is what they’re doing,” Collins said as she watched a group of fourth-graders eat and start to sort their trash.

The school started a recycling program in October. However, it was only for the workers in the cafeteria to recycle food cans and boxes, she said, adding that classrooms were recycling paper. However, once she noticed students were emptying out milk cartons so they could recycle them, she decided to get them more involved.

Now, on the wall hangs two posters: One with items that can be recycled and the other with those that should be thrown away. Collins said this helps to remind students how it works.

Students said they don’t mind the extra step.

“We thought it was gong to be hard, but it’s easy,” 10-year-old Kayla Brunson said.

“All you have to do is sort out your things and put it in the bins,” 10-year-old Evan Underwood said. “It feels really good when you do it, because you’re saving and not putting as much stuff in the landfills. You’re saving animals’ homes and everything when you recycle.”

Many of the kids said they enjoy being a part of this program.

“I think it’s fun. It’s helping the planet and it’s fun and it helps kids too, because it saves trees,” 10-year-old Brooklyn Taylor said, adding, “the trees have oxygen so we can breathe.”

“I do it so we can stop the landfills,” 11-year-old Charles Dickens said. “I think it’s going to make the world better, because we can save on energy and stuff.”

Collins said all the rewards have been donated by local businesses. Though she said a reward children love getting is to sit in the few booths that line the lunchroom, as opposed to their normal long, rectangular tables.

Collins said she only knows of one other school in the district, Scribner Middle School, that is doing a recycling program. She said she hopes to see this initiative go district-wide. She said Grant Line is saving money by paying less for garbage pickup now.

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