Recycling and Sustainability

On the 1st of November, we had our community and service activity as usual. We collected paper and cardboard from all the classrooms of our school and took them down to the recycling room where we then put all the cardboard and paper into large plastic containers. These containers were then put in the van which would take them to the recycling center situated near to the school. On that day however, I had the opportunity of going there myself along with Mr Lockwood (our activity teacher) and a few other students to see the place. So this was my opportunity to undertake a new challenge. It was not a very large area/shop but there was enough paper, cardboard and metal to fill up a car. We placed all the paper and cardboard on the weighing scale to calculate how much money we would get from that haul.

Me (in white) helping to put the paper in the weighing scale
on the back
(Photo credits: Mr. Lockwood)

What I learned:

• I was directly able to engage with an issue of global importance that is waste management, because I was able to visit the recycling site in person and help out there. It was very nice to see that there was a large amount of paper in the room as this suggests that people are indeed recycling and doing their bit for the environment. However, we may be able to encourage more people to recycle by organizing various awareness programs which we could do in the coming months.
• I was able to consider the ethical implications of my trip there because, I really enjoyed the trip to the recycling center and giving the paper to the man who owns the shop, we know that this paper in very important for this man and it was good to know that we were helping him.