NEW YORK—Some schools are making recycling fun and interesting, a nonprofit has discovered.
After finding in a survey last year that only 30 percent of schools recycle, Matthew Malina of NYC H20 visited 75 schools to see how educators are encouraging recycling.
He said the educators who are taking active approaches to recycling were inspiring.
“They had very motivated educators that involved the kids in recycling clubs and green teams, and they did a good job,” he said.
At Stuyvesant High School, for example, students from the Environment Club remind other students to separate their trash after eating lunch. Also, the jingle ‘Flip, tap, stack’ is written on posters around the lunchroom to remind students to separate the trash.
The idea came from a newly appointed sustainability coordinator in the school and has caught on with students, according to Malina.
There are still many opportunities to improve recycling in schools, which could be accomplished through providing small incentives to principals and custodians who make sure it happens, said Malina.
The city’s Department of Education is working on recycling programs, in part through training new sustainability coordinators.
Nearly 700 coordinators, out of 1,600 citywide, were trained during this school year. The training includes how to teach students about one of four sustainability subjects—curriculum, ecology, energy, or recycling—said a representative in an email.
Recycling is mandatory in schools per the Solid Waste Management Act of 1988, but New York City schools have struggled overall to put in systems that properly do so, according to the NYC H20 survey.
The organization plans to hold another forum soon to raise awareness, and is reaching out to people in the field, including Ron Gonen, the city’s top recycling official, to speak.
