Re-committing to Recycling at Archmere

Chloe Mantakounis ‘21, Staff Reporter

Recycling is one of the first ways kids learn to help the health of our planet. However, we can do more here on campus at Archmere.

In previous years, Americans sent a bulk of its recycling to China; however in 2017 China passed the National Sword Policy, announcing that they would not accept plastic anymore. This was passed to protect the help and safety of the people. Completely understandable.

Recycling in America and around the world has become a major issue because of this policy, as statistically China has been receiving half the world’s recycling for years. Recycling for Archmere is cheap, according to Mr. Campion, Director of Facilities; however, it can be very expensive for the companies we send it to.

A major issue in recycling seems to be the fact that a majority of plastics cannot be recycled, or are too difficult or expensive to recycle. In addition, it is costly to educate people on what to recycle, along with hiring people to sort through the recyclables.

In the past 10 or so years at Archmere, there have been 2 groups of people involved in recycling. One group was the cleaning staff; the other--at one point--was the Ecology Club. Mr. Bill Mulhern was the previous moderator of the Ecology Club which initially took charge of recycling.

According to Dr. Jenna Christy, Biology teacher, “It was a few years before Mr. Mulhern retired that students in the ecology club stopped recycling and there were some problems with how it worked out, or the problem was that it didn’t always work out, or work out smoothly enough. And then the cleaning people just took over.”

Ror awhile, Archmere was not recycling. Mr. Campion, whose new responsibilities as Direcotr of Facilities includes overseeing the cleaning staff, stated, “I think [the cleaning staff] are combining it with the trash, for now.” Why? The answer isn’t clear; however, the issue of who is in charge of it, combined with complications due to St. Norbert Hall’s renovation, seems to be the main reason.

It’s understandable that transition periods create challenges; however, we all must commit to our previous level of recycling. In addition, there are a few things we can do to help with this.

For one, we could add recyclig--both collection and removal to the dumpster-- to the cleaning staff’s list of responsibilities. Mr. Campion said, “There’s a recycling dumpster here, very inexpensive to have.” Most importantly, we need to educate students and faculty on what we can and can’t recycle.

Mr. Campion said, “There’s a desire to do something.” So let’s build on that desire that Mr. Campion has noticed and make a difference a little bit at a time. "It’s been on my mind,” said Mr. Campion, “that when this building was reopened I had strategically had recycling with Mr Mulhern to get the kids to do it, and I’m trying to get back to that now.”