Encouraging Recycling at River Dell: Can We Do More?

by Avani Dhariwal

River Dell is making some efforts to promote recycling, however, are they sufficient enough to have an impact? After interviewing Mr. Drywa, a science teacher at River Dell, it seems that the school could do even more to help the planet. He suggests River Dell can take even more action to promote recycling and compost. According to Mr. Drywa, “There are limited recycling bins [around the school]. This is because trash, recyclables, paper waste, and compostables are all going into the same bag into the same dumpster.” Ultimately, this prevents recyclables from being recycled and causes contamination. Mr. Drywa recommends setting up separate bins around the school as a simple step in the right direction, but notes that one of the biggest issues with this step lies in the possibility that multiple bins will not be used properly and, “some students would purposely not respect the system as a form of anti-woke culture.” For waste to be properly disposed of, all students must work to respect the planet.

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Mr. Drywa acknowledges that with separate bins, “the school would need to pay for separate truck pickups. This means possibly more dumpsters to organize the trash and more large fossil fuel-guzzling trucks coming to pick up our waste.” As a solution, he offers that, “having a compostable option would be easy to implement.” He explains how since many students have unfinished lunches, this would be an excellent opportunity to “fertilize the future pollinator garden the Environmental Club wants to plant in the courtyard.”

Nora Yu, the Environmental Club’s president, states that the club is taking actionable steps toward promoting recycling. Last year, they received a grant from Bergen County Utilities to create a garden, a hydroponics system, and a composting system. According to Nora, “Hydroponics was the Maker’s Day project the club pursued last year. It involves a new way of gardening without soil. Through recycling water, gardeners are able to save water and garden in vertical farms.” In other words,

Source: www.marketwatch.com the club wishes to save water for their plants, which will encourage more plant growth.

For this year’s Maker’s Day, an event held every year at the Oradell Public Library, their project is to inspire others to use recycled paper from used paper scraps. They aim to teach elementary students to think sustainably. Like Mr. Drywa, they believe,

“there are many other recycling initiatives that the school has yet to begin (such as the TREX challenge and Sustainable Jersey), so if anyone has ideas, feel free to join the Environmental Club in room 308 every Friday after school!”

Be sure to join the Environmental Club to help keep River Dell more sustainable, and consider how you can take part in promoting