On May 20, 2019, Coral Walker from English 2010 informed the entire class on what can and cannot be recycled. It was obvious by the facial expressions of the students that they had not been recycling very well. Many questions about recycling were asked and answered. Coral went over many categories of recycling, everything from paper to plastic. We as students were all informed of the dangers when something unrecyclable gets put into the recycling. Students said audibly that they had in fact recycled some of the unrecyclables in the past.
For about 30 minutes, Coral lectured on how the process of recycling works, and what should be recycled. One of the most important things that was mentioned was that anything with remains of food on it cannot be recycled, and if they are recycled, the effects are really negative. The class was told that when food goes into the recycling bin, the whole batch of recycling will simply get thrown away. This seemed really saddening to the students, probably because they had knowingly thrown food into their home recycling bin on more than one occasion. The class also learned that batteries cannot be recycled, because they contain many harmful metals that can leach into the other recycling.
The review of the service project were overwhelmingly positive, with one student saying “It was very informative, and it had a lot of useful knowledge that I can apply to my daily life.”. Another student said “ I felt like this service project was something that was very useful to my daily life.” From the two quotes, it is easy to see that because of Coral’s service project, every students daily life can change for the better. This change can come from really paying attention to what goes into the recycle bin, not just throwing anything into the bin.
From an article about recycling by National Geographic, “The vast majority—79 percent—is accumulating in landfills or sloughing off in the natural environment as litter.” This shows that most of what is thrown in the recycling bin is not actually recycled, and that is what is most crucial from Coral’s point of view. A quote directly from Coral reads, “ I think that for an overall sustainable planet, we as humans need to actually throw only recyclable things into the recycling bin”. This is why the education that Coral brought the class is so important, so the percentage that doesn’t get recycled can decrease.