Another recycling post for Wednesday the 22nd! Today we focused on collecting recycling from classrooms that are not in a specific hallway and as well as all the classrooms on the top floor, English and Science hallways plus the media center, art rooms, and robotics rooms. We had a great team again this week with the same few kids helping every week! We are really working it down to a science! This week we had club members Sidney, Wilton, Hailey, and myself, as well as volunteers Mallory and Julio.

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Our crew pushing the carts to the elevators so we can take them to the outside trailer!

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

An example of bad recycling at JHHS. This bin had everything from aluminum cans to half eaten sandwiches! 

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

After our last load of recyclables! 

Another successful round of recycling on Wednesday! We had a slightly larger turnout with help from club members Wilton, Anna, Sidney, Hailey, Devon, and myself! Plus extra help from volunteers Josh, Mallory, Nicole, and Julio!

We are learning more about or schools habits of recycling each week. For the most part our students do a pretty good job, with some odd cases like a ham sandwich in the plastics bin... Its awesome however to see the recycling in our classrooms and hallways empty, and ready to be refilled after Wednesday Recycling!

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Club member Hailey digging out a web of plastic from one of the cafeteria recycling bins!

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

We filled a giant janitors cart with nothing but plastic bottles this week! Plus all the bins from individual classrooms and the cafeteria!

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Members of the team getting the job done!

Starting off the year with a small bang today! Club members Wilton, Sara, and Sidney plus volunteer Mallory worked together at 8 am to do the first round of recycling for our new recycling program! We collected and sorted through all of the materials from the science and english hallways as well as collected the bins from the upstairs art rooms, the media center, and the counseling office.

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Club member Wilton rolling all of the recycling out 

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Club member Wilton sifting through the office paper bin to retrieve bottles that got mixed in

(Credit: Sara VanHatten)

Volunteer Mallory tossing one last can in

Reusable Bag Giveaway - Year 2!

For the second year in a row, Students For Sustainability has partnered with local organizations to donate over 600 reusable canvas bags to community members. These bags are purchased by an anonymous donor, given to the local school district's art classes, decorated, and then given away at local grocery stores to whoever would like them.

This year 640 bags were given away at 3 local grocery stores, mainly focusing on the Whole Grocer. By the end of four hours, only about 30 bags were remaining, which we then took to local nonprofits and business for their use.

The goal of our project was not only to provide free reusable bags to circulate in the community, but also to educate people about how much more beneficial reusable bags are to plastic ones.

To see the recap of last years giveaway, checkout http://studentsforsustainabilityjackson.blogspot.com/2013/05/bag-giveaway.html

Water Bottle Fillers

As the 2014 school year comes to a close, we finished totaling the amount of plastic bottles offset by our four water bottle filling stations. We're very proud of these results, and the project was quickly appreciated by the student body. 

We're also very excited to see water bottle fillers being installed around our community, through a project called JH2O. If you'd like to see what their project is all about, check http://www.jh2oproject.org/. 

Here is our recordings from the year: 

Week 1 fillers 1 bottles 700
week 2 fillers 2 bottles 2768
week 3 fillers 4 bottles 4496
week 4 fillers 4 bottles 6042
week 7 fillers 4 bottles 12,118
week 8 fillers 4 bottles 14,383
week 9 fillers 4 bottles 15,793

School Recycling Initiative!

As the school year comes to a close, Students For Sustainability has created a new recycling program to implement in our high school. Because the last few days of school is often consumed with emptying lockers and classrooms and getting rid of classwork, we have found that students become exceptionally lazy about recycling recyclables. This mainly comes in the form of paper, for students would rather throw away a binder full of paper than take the time to separate the paper from the binder and recycle it.

Our goal with this program it to streamline and simplify the recycling process for students. We are both making recycling bins more common around the school as well as locating them so it's closer to the students than the trashcan is. We are also taking out the work of separating notebooks, binders, etc. from recyclables and accepting all forms of semi-recyclable material.

Once the school years ends, SFS students will collect the bins that we put out, and sort all of the recyclables into their various categories. Luckily, our National Honor Society Club's main project this year was a school supply drive, in which we will be donating all of the school supplies that we collect in the recycling bins. All other materials will be transported to the Teton County Recycling Center and be appropriately disposed of.

While we a club unique to the high school, we will be in contact with the middle school and elementary schools of the district reminding them that as the year comes to a close to get rid of their materials responsibly.

Reuable Bag Giveaway!

Last year, SFS helped hand out canvas bags at a grocery store that local elementary students had decorated as part of an annual campaign to encourage the use of reusable bags. This year we asked the man who organizes it if he needed any help again. Recently he replied and we are helping him transport eight boxes of blank canvas bags to Colter Elementary School. The students will decorate them and eventually we will help hand them out at a grocery store again. While handing out these bags to residents, we will also pass out information on why reusable bags should be used more than plastic and paper bags. Updates to come about when the giveaway day will be!

Water Bottle Fillers Update!

Two years ago, some SFS members went to a daylong project called the Kelly Green Schools, where they experienced hands-on energy reduction projects. Because they attended this workshop, our club received a grant for $2,200 from the Project Learning Tree's Green Schools program in cooperation with the Forest Service.

            As a group, we decided that a very important, waste saving, project we could do would be to install automatic water bottle fillers around our school, which not only quickly fill reusable bottles with filtered water, but also track the amount of plastic bottles that are being saved.

            As of now, the first water bottle station has been installed in JHHS, and in one week it managed to save 730 plastic water bottles from being used. Because of the grant we received, also because of the generosity of Jackson Hole High School and Teton County School District #1, four more water bottle filling stations are to be installed in JHHS in March.

            In tandem with the fillers project, last year we worked with JHHS to stop the selling on plastic water bottles in the JHHS lunch line, as well as to incorporate a new recycling system that encourages high school students to recycle their plastic bottles instead of throwing them away.

            During the end of the school year (April through June) we will be posting updates tracking how many plastic bottles we have been able to save, so keep updated with our blog!

            One project that we hope to do in the upcoming year is work with the Teton County Recycling Center in order to fund reusable water bottles for JHHS students who would like them. More will be said about this project as time progresses! 

Library Recycling!

          Students for Sustainability was contacted by the Teton County Library to work together on recycling initiatives this past winter. Currently the club members go to the library every other week to take out the library’s paper, plastic, cardboard, and other forms of recycling. Working together with other members of the community on eco-friendly projects is beneficial for all, especially because it helps our club move beyond just our school, and into the greater Jackson area.