Student Contributor -C. Betts
Recycle to Regrow is a project that inspires students to clean the Earth while also giving them the freedom to positively enhance it as well. With this project students are encouraged to go around their school, parks, and home and collect recyclable trash. After they collect the trash their helpful volunteer, you the teacher, can easily take the recyclables to the Spokane Commercial Recycling waste management site.
This project encourages students to clean up the recyclable trash around their community and bring it back to class for collection and separation. As the recyclables continue to come in, students get to visually see the impact they are making by being able to see the amount of recyclables they’ve collected that can be kept in bags or recycling bins in your classroom. The plan is to recycle and earn money to purchase and plant a tree. The students can then plant the tree around their schools campus and have then cleaned, and added to their environment. This project took place in a state without these laws, and because of that I donated some of my own money to purchase a sapling that my students were allowed to plant behind the school. This is huge for these students and the community because it shows them that they really can make a difference, and it can inspire a lifetime of eco-friendly habits. It really was important to them to see the massive amount of trash they took out of nature and then for them to actually add to nature. It was as important to me as it was them, because it was one of those moments that reminds you why you chose to be a teacher.
The project was designed for states with bottle laws in tact. Those states you’re able to receive some small income for recycling cans and bottles. Unfortunately, those are the only states in which you can actually earn the money to buy the sapling, without forking out some of your own money. This was the only modification I had to make to my project, and I didn’t have a problem with forking out the small amount of money it cost to purchase a sapling, because of how excited my students were about the project since it was mentioned. The excitement only grew until I almost had to tell them to stop bringing in recyclables because I wouldn’t have been able to fit it all in my truck! My students who were present the day we planted our sapling, had grins painted from ear to ear and I was constantly bombarded with the question, “How long until our tree is bigger than us?”. This project was worth while for my students and I and will definitely be an experience they remember forever. If you plan on using this project in your classroom, be prepared for excited students, check to see if your state participates in bottle laws (or be willing to spend 20-30 dollars), and ask your principal for permission to plant a tree. Since that day, I’ve been welcomed to class with stories about how their parents got them x, y, and z plant to take care of. I’m happy to of been apart of this inspiration.
