Author C–

Sustainability is a huge talked about and encouraged part of the community at RCDS, as it’s constantly talked about and encouraged. Whether it’s changing small habits in everyone’s everyday life or trying to reduce the amount of waste students use, almost everyone in the school manages to be environmentally friendly. In particular, the school’s heavy emphasis on recycling. Recycling is a viable option for almost everything: paper, plastic, glass, snack wrappers, rubber gloves, batteries, etc…  But here’s the real question for you: How much of the recycling at RCDS actually gets recycled? 

In 2019, RCDS came up with a Sustainability Plan that was filled with the school’s yearly environmental goals and a plan to achieve them. The main ideas consisted of campus landscaping regulations, paper reduction, a no idling policy, recycling, composting, classroom activities, school clubs, school gardens, etc… This plan has not been updated since 2019, and some of the future plans have not yet been confirmed. 

The community is filled with recycling bins that are filled with garbage by the end of the day. At first there was just an issue with the garbage bins by the Athletic fields. From the outside, they appear to have a side for recycling, and another for regular garbage. If you look closer, you’ll notice that they are one, big garbage can. Everything that is dumped in there for recycling, will actually be thrown out with normal waste. After further investigation, it was figured out that a large amount of materials we “recycle” at our school doesn’t get recycled. There is a large dumpster behind the ice hockey rink filled with trash, and recycling, from all over the school. After dumpster diving to see what was in these bags, they were sadly filled with both plastic bottles and old food wrappers. Papers that typically get recycled by themselves were thrown in bags with vacuum debris and food containers. All of these bags were covered by flowers, previously potted around the school’s campus for autumn, that were supposed to be picked up for compost. This issue really comes down to whether or not our community is recycling everything there is to recycle. Are people using the bins in a correct way, or is the recycling plan at RCDS not as progressive as it should be? RCDS has continuously talked about how sustainable our community is. Although, taking a closer look at the waste the school produces, the amount of specialized recycling bins, compost bins, and trash cans seem to prove otherwise. 

Ms. Linderoth believes that this issue mainly relies in the hands of the student body, since “it is important that everyone in the community is aware of what can be recycled and how to properly sort their waste.” She says that “recycling is a very complicated topic globally. Much of what we put in the recycling bin, whether at home, school, or elsewhere, may not actually get recycled due to a variety of factors.” RCDS uses different companies, including TerraCycle and Trex, to keep our plastic bags, snack bags, and utensils out of landfills and incinerators. Recycling itself is a complex process that not many people understand, therefore it becomes necessary to educate the community about its importance. There is a possibility that people are being careless as to whether or not their waste is going into the correct wastebaskets, leading the community to recycle less than they should. Either everyone needs to be more educated on what goes into the different receptacles, or RCDS needs to stop lying about the school’s sustainability and own up to what has really been going on. While talking with Sukie Flinn, the Director of Facilities at RCDS, she stated that recycling at this school is a lot more difficult than people make it out to be. Because of the large student body, policing what goes into the garbage bins is extremely difficult. RCDS has done a good job of “proactively pursuing compost” and “taking electric recyclables to the transfer station,” but plastic bottles and paper are still poorly recycled. She and Ms. Linderoth believe that RCDS has done its part as a sustainable school, their only criticisms are going to the students, who seem to be the reason why we are still undergoing recycling issues. 

As the amount of pollution and litter increases in the world, it’s predominant that we’re doing the best we can as a community to ensure students are being as sustainable as possible. There are over 1,000 people coming to RCDS every single weekday who throw out their waste and disposable containers around our campus. Even though we don’t have full control over everything that goes into each bin, we can start by teaching everyone the basics to what goes in each receptacle. It’s important to continue to be environmentally cautious, the kinder we are to the earth, the longer we’ll be able to live here.

This article was written by Elizabeth Hawkey. For the full answer key, click here.