Kayaks, Cans & Carpools: How area Students & Schools are Promoting Environmental Awareness

By Greg Haefner

With Earth Day right around the corner (April 22), I set out to see what some schools in the area are doing to help out our environment. I'll admit that when I first started my research for this article, I thought I would be exposing schools for their lack of environmental awareness. It turns out I am the one exposed – for not having enough faith in our local schools. What I have found out is, in fact, very inspiring.

The lengths some schools go to in order to not only recycle, but also to help the environment in general, are pretty surprising. After talking to teachers at Pittsford-Mendon High School, The Harley School and Allendale Columbia School, I discovered that some of the schools in our area are much more active than we may realize. Whether it's a school organizing a can drive, a group of kids adding carpool parking spaces to their school's parking lot or a brave soul paddling himself to school in a canoe, local students and schools take their environmental awareness programs very seriously!

Pittsford-Mendon High School
Steve Smith is a Science teacher at PMHS and is also copresident of the school's Environmental Awareness Club with fellow Science Teacher Brandon Mauks.

Mr. Smith sat down with me to talk about the school's recycling program. He admits that he has had concerns in the past about the recycling bins being merely dumped in with the garbage, but says that he frequently checks in with Karl Thielking, the principal of the school, who assures him that everything is going where it needs to be.

Mr. Smith says he would like to be able to put a can and bottle recycling bin in each classroom, but knows that it is something that the teachers themselves really have to put into action, as he himself has done. He also says that all those bins would mean more work for an "already understaffed custodial crew" at Mendon, who are "stretched very thin" as it is. Mr. Smith has a can and bottle recycling bin in his room, as does Mr. Mauks, as well as multiple other teachers around the building, which they maintain themselves. The Environmental Awareness Club also had an idea where they added bins to each classroom that they would empty themselves. Mr. Smith says the idea "lasted about a week" before kids started shrugging their responsibilities.

Mr. Smith himself is trying to do his part to help the environment. At the end of the year when he is cleaning out his desk he takes extra time to sort out recyclables such as paper and cardboard, rather than dumping everything into one big trash bin, which he says has almost become the "norm" among some teachers at the school. PMHS is on its way, but will need to follow Mr. Smith's example if they wish to make a larger impact.

The Harley School
I sat down with Chris Hartman, head of Social and Environmental Sustainability at Harley, to discuss what I thought would be just the school's recycling program. I was wrong.

Mr. Hartman told me how much Harley was doing even outside of recycling and I was surprised to find out just how active the school was in preserving the environment. Mr. Hartman says that the school's recycling program started out like most schools' with just paper, but that over the years it has evolved into cans, bottles, cardboards, milk cartons, and even food scraps. The school also sorts out what really needs to be thrown in the recycling bin instead of being re-used first. The 3rd Grade class recently started making notebooks in class out of paper that had only been used on one side, rather than tossing that paper in the recycling bin just yet. Harley also has receptacles of all types placed around the school to make recycling easier and more convenient.

The school started recycling its milk cartons three years ago, which must make a huge difference considering there are about 500 students using those cartons every day. Recycling the cartons used to be easier said than done, Mr. Hartman says, because the excess milk left in each carton would make them non-recyclable. But the school put containers at the ends of each lunch table for kids to pour out all the excess milk left in each carton before recycling them.

Last year the school started composting food scraps, as well. They were able to compost more than 4,000 pounds last year and have already matched that number, so far, this year. The lunch room also uses all compostable materials (from plates to napkins to straws) in order to minimize what goes into the trash cans.

Last Earth Day, Derek Corbett of Allendale Columbia School helped to cut gas fume emissions and found alternative transportation to school – kayaking down Allen’s Creek. Along the way, Derek stopped to pick up litter. Although he arrived to school 20 minutes late for his first class (and soaking wet) he said the effort was well worth it.

Allendale Columbia School
Andy Ragan is a History teacher at Allendale and is also the Chairman of the Sustainability Committee (a voluntary committee) at the school. He told me just how much his school was doing in an effort to reduce waste and help the environment.

Allendale, like Harley, recycles its milk cartons at the school and, according to Mr. Ragan, was able to cut down on its garbage at lunch by 66 percent because of it. They also compost their materials in colorful compost machines that encourage the children at the school to get started as early as 1st Grade. The school's cafeteria uses all compostable plastic items, excluding silverware, so that it can maximize how much can be, in some way, recycled.

The school also has many very unique ways in which it helps preserve the environment, which surprised me. Some students suggested the idea of adding carpool-exclusive parking spaces to the school's parking lot (that are closer to the building) to promote carpooling to school and using less gas. The idea caught on. There are now five spaces reserved exclusively for carpooling. Allendale also uses re-usable batteries and compact florescent light bulbs to cut down on energy use as a whole.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of their environmental awareness program is their use of water-free urinals. People may not walk into a bathroom with the intention of saving the environment, but each water-free urinal at Allendale helps save more than 4,000 gallons of water per year. The school also organizes special activities on Earth Day for all of its students to get involved in. Last year some students went around and looked at all the electrical devices that were left plugged into the wall when not needed and calculated how much energy could be saved if someone would simply pull the plug. The school also encourages students to find an alternate way of getting to school on Earth Day rather than riding the bus or driving.

Last year one dedicated student, Derek Corbett, came in a kayak – using rivers and creeks as much as possible before he was forced to walk the rest of the way. Mr. Ragan also says that Allendale tries to bring in public speakers from major companies, at least once a year, to talk to their students about the importance of recycling and preserving the environment.

These schools are a prime example of why the outlook for our environment is a bright one. With this generation being taught to be extremely active in the preservation of our planet, the awareness is sure to be passed on to the next.

Greg Haefner is an intern from Pittsford-Mendon High School

This article originally appeared in the April 2009 issue of Genesee Valley Parent Magazine. Copyright 2010.