Incorporating sustainability in our community

By Annabelle Julien, Jo Jackson, Mia Schultz & Gianna Roux MANAGING EDITOR, WEB EDITOR, STAFF REPORTER & INTERN

notes that recycling is an essential part of preserving resources, and he believes that it would be beneficial for the school to add recycling bins specifically for plastic.

“It would help a little bit if more plastic were recycled,” Bidigare said. “I throw so many [bottles] away in school and my teachers always look disappointed when they have to tell me I need to throw my can in the trash because we have no recycling bins [for plastic and cans].” only just for driving but for all of the trash that is littered there. Especially trash from fast food after open campus lunch. The littering is a detriment.”

Last semester, Grosse Pointe contractor Jeff Russell spoke to the Global Issues class about sustainable housing. His mission is to redesign the way homes are built using eco-friendly materials instead of cost efficient ones. He is currently designing a home that will be built on Hollywood Avenue which saves energy, has natural materials and plants that promote clean air.

ECOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY | The goal for co-owners of the Refill Emporium, Shannon Sweetwood and Whitney Wagner, was to create a space where the community can shop sustainably. “We live in an age with unnecessary packaging,”Sweetwood and Wagner said. “At Refill Emporium we use as little packaging as possible and currently carry over 70 refillable products.”

In an effort to become more environmentally conscious, community members have begun implementing more eco-friendly alternatives in everyday tasks, such as automatic lights in schools, stores run with reusable containers and houses built using renewable materials.

About 380 million metric tons of plastic is produced every year, as reported by earthday.org. However, only 34.2 million of that gets recycled globally. Senior Global Issues student Jack Bidigare

Sustainability in society is important to the Refill Emporium, located on Harper Avenue. Co-owners Shannon Sweetwood and Whitney Wagner believe the change starts with awareness and early education.

“Solve a problem before there is a problem,” Sweetwood and Wagner said. “If schools focus on the environmental implications of plastic, global warming, toxic chemicals and the need for specialized recycling it will be second nature for kids to make choices that avoid harmful consequences to the environment.”

North has implemented beneficial practices related to sustainability, but some students, such as President of S.A.V.E club, Students Against Violations to the Environment, senior Zoey Crossley continue to look for ways to improve our environment.

“Automatic lights and recycling are both measures that North usually does well,” Crossley said. “The parking lot can be a mess though, not

“Sustainability versus affordability is a really big topic,” Russell said. “Affordability, typically in my business, means that people put cheap materials in so that somebody can afford to buy the house. Well, in 15 years, those cheap materials are going to fail.”

After hearing Russell’s presentation in class, Bidigare believes sustainability protects current ecosystems and conserves materials for generations to come. Additionally, pollution from wasted materials will worsen the climate crisis.

“Sustainability is balancing our current needs with saving enough for future generations,” Bidigare said. “If the current generation selfishly uses all of Earth’s resources and destroys its ecosystems or climate, the next generation and ones after are screwed.”

Although contracting comes with cost effective challenges, Russell knows that a change needs to be made in order to create a new type of living space that can last many decades.