Thursday, March 24, 2005
THE ALL
the Squall
opinions
SQUALL CALL
9
THE SQUALL STAFF
More recycling options needed
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Sarah Craft MANAGING EDITOR: Michelle Svetkoff
Walking through the lunch room between 11 and 12:30 on weekdays, we find students eating lunch bought at the school on styrofoam lunch trays and drinking from styrofoam cups. We find salads individually packaged in heavy plastic containers and plastic pop bottles that will more likely be thrown in the trash after use. Strolling through classrooms, we notice the absence of recycling bins for plastic containers such as pop bottles. In short, Dexter High School does not have enough outlets for recycling materials. It is not that the school is held responsible for not recycling or being environmentally safe, but with the number of people using disposable products, we think they should be. The school could make exorbitant profits just from the bottle returns on pop bottles. But this is not just about profit. It is about the needless waste of recyclable materials on a grander scale. Each day over 1000 people eat lunch in the cafeteria. Think how much waste that produces. Think about the styrofoam trays and cups that will sit in a landfill for the next 100 years. That cannot be the most environmentally safe method of serving to the masses. However, the school does pride itself in recycling paper once a week, as National Honor Society students go from class to class collecting the gigantic amount of paper that is used each day. This is a good step, but we can do more. By setting up plastic recycling containers in classrooms and in the lunchroom, the school is not only helping the environment, but also cashing in on the return of pop bottles, something that is used to a large degree every day. The re-introduction of paper cups instead of the non-biodigradable styrofoam currently used would be a large measure in making the school more cognizant of the environmental world outside the district. It wouldn’t be a laborious task to set up more recycling bins, and we are sure that it would be for the benefit of both the environment and the school.
EDITORS FEATURES: Jenny Heldt ENTERTAINMENT: Samantha Harris NEWS: Kyle Muse OPINIONS: Thomas Leonard PHOTO: Brandon Mayotte and Teri Chiado SPORTS: Lee Hoggard DESIGN: Mike Vickers COPY: Hilary McCown
MANAGERS BUSINESS: Stephanie Rushlow MORALE: Raleigh Holmes and Molly Brewster PHOTO: Christina Field and Kendall Goode CIRCULATION: Jennifer Allen and Sara Newell
STAFF WRITERS David Ager TJ LaRosa Daniel Monson Seth Porinsky Jonathan Williamson Robert Kuzon Matt Gauntlett illustration by Jared Myers
AD DESIGNER: Eric Wilkinson CARTOONIST: Jared Myers ADVISER: Rod Satterthwaite
POLICY:
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Dreads in the hall Do you think the district could improve its recycling habits and be more environmentally friendly?
Jonathan Jenkins, freshman “Yes, because I know a lot of kids that just throw away things like magazines because they donʼt know if it can be recycled or not and teachers donʼt enforce (recycling) a lot.”
Jessie Vickers, sophomore “I think they do a pretty good job because there are a lot of buckets in the classrooms and signs on the buckets telling kids to recycle.”
Marshall Simons, junior
Casey Flowers, senior
Matt Martello, teacher
“Yes, because thereʼs no need to fill up landfills with Styrofoam.”
“Yes, because the district is wasteful in a lot of ways such as the amount of paper used and pop bottles not being recycled at lunch.
“Yes, I think one way the district could become more environmentally friendly is to not use such a large quantity of paper for conferences.”