Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union

Students at Solomon Schechter Day School in Essex and Union used their day of volunteering this year to organize a full recycling program for the school.  Previous to this year, small blue recycling bins were being used as trash bins throughout the school and no recycling took place.  Students collected all the bins, hand-made lids with either circular or rectangular holes, and organized the disposal of all recyclables. 

After completing their waste audit , students wrote a letter to all teachers detailing their findings and asking for their cooperation with the expanded program.

Students also called various waste haulers to find one that would save the school money for recycling pick-up, and now they are urging the administration to create an environmental fund with those savings.  After these accomplishments, students presented a PowerPoint at a meeting for the administration, discussing the recycling program and further changes that were needed, including the cost savings of switching to recycled content paper.  Within a few weeks of the meeting, the school officially started purchasing 30% recycled content paper, and started planning the purchase of sturdy, permanent lids for the recycling cans.   The students took part in National Environmental Education Week, holding morning announcements with environmental tips, a recycling poster contest, and organizing a recycling competition by grade. 

Joyce Raynor, coordinator of the school’s program said in CHEJ’s Everyone’s Backyard, “We are motivated through this program to enrich our school community by reducing our p’solet (the Hebrew word for waste) school wide.”