The Blue and Gold maldenblueandgold.com Malden High School
Volume 105 Edition 1
77 salem street
October 2019
MAYOR GARY CHRISTENSON, WARD 3 COUNCILLOR JOHN MATHESON: MAYORAL DEBATE Ana Pirosca Editor-in-Chief
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Recycling at Malden High Julie Yu Co-Head of Local News
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alden High, for years, has had a paper only recycling system, and has not been recycling plastic waste. Principal Chris Mastrangelo explained that “it has always been this way.” Malden High has never recycled plastic. However, Mastrangelo does not have a reason why. With such a large school, using a large amount of paper throughout each week and even each day. Mastrangelo was told that “it has been becoming increasingly more difficult to get companies to come,” and pick up recycling. Before, picking up the recycling from the high school required no cost for companies, “but now since there is such a demand for recycling, [it is] costing the district.” Mastrangelo explained that Malden High has established system that they follow. Each classroom has their own regular recycling bin and on top of that the school owns roughly 40 larger recycling barrels.
Those 40 larger recycling barrels are split up, 20 of them are kept outside of the school and the other 20 are in the school. Once the 20 barrels inside of the school are full, they take them outside and bring in the 20 empty barrels from the outside, and the cycle continues and repeats. As of now, the recycling company is not picking up Malden High recycled waste as frequently as desired by faculty. The school ran into the issue of filling up the recycling barrels too quickly before the company comes to pick it up. Although this is not a definite answer, Mastrangelo thinks that not recycling plastic could be a way to simply “buy the school more time,” by limiting the recyclable materials in the recycling bins. Mastrangelo shared that when he was in elementary school, recycling was a completely new concept. He recalled during his junior year of high school that “[he] did a fundraiser around recycling because there was no place for people to bring it.” He also mentioned that for many students at Malden High “recycling is almost as normal as
brushing your teeth in the morning.” Math teacher Joshua Abrams prior to the interview was not aware that Malden High does not recycle plastic, as he has been allowing students to use his recycling bin to dispose of paper and plastic. He expressed that he “wish[ed] [he] knew, because [he felt] bad for mixing the recycling.” Abrams explained his concerns with “the environmental situation being very important,” and how a relatively simple solution is recycling which everyone in the community should be doing. English teacher Jennifer Clapp feels that “[it is] frustrating that [Malden High] does not recycle bottles and cans like [they] should.” She expressed that it is “bad enough that [students and staff] use them but [it is] even worse when [they] do not recycle them.” When Clapp found out about this news, she began to keep a small box in her room by the recycling bin where she let her Recycling at MHS, continued on Page 2.
he first of two mayoral debates between candidates John Matheson, Malden City Councilor for Ward 3, and Gary Christenson, Mayor of Malden, took place at the Malden Senior Center on September 25th. This is the first time since Christenson’s campaign against Craig Spadafora in 2011 that Christenson is running against an opponent for mayor. Around five pm, before the debate began, supporters for both Matheson and Christenson gathered on Pleasant Street holding signs and cheering on their candidates. Finally, at six pm, the audience was granted permission to enter the hall. For the debate, a panel was created to pose questions to the candidates consisting of representatives from organizations within Malden. The panel consisted of: Jim Mitchel Jr. from the Malden Advocate, Marcia Manong from the Massachusetts Senior Action Council, MHS freshman Henry Zhao from the Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition, and Sergiu Parfeni from the Malden Chamber of Commerce. Each were assigned a number from one to four respectively during proceedings. Alongside this, Guillermo Hamlin acted as moderator. A coin toss decided that Matheson would speak first followed by Christenson. During proceedings they are referred to as candidate one and candidate two, respectively. Each would have two minutes to respond to questions posed by the panel or choose to refute their opponent’s points from previous questions. They will also have five minutes for opening remarks as well as closing remarks. Altogether there were fourteen questions. Mayoral Debate, continued on Page 8 and 9.