Day 16- Greener
Plan: Operation “Bin-ify” San Leandro High School
Objective: To make a small change that will have a huge impact. To bring recycle and compost bins onto
San Leandro High School campus. To push and make it easier for students and staff to transition to a
more eco-conscious lifestyle.
We spend most of our days at school, where we practice a lot of bad habits in terms of making ecofriendly choices. We have garbage cans all around the school and some recycle bins scattered around in
classrooms. Overall, most of our waste ends up in the garbage cans, whether it actually belongs there or
not.
Stages:
For starters, GreenWay is already working on getting more recycle bins on our campus. We’re focusing it
on our quad, where we have 54 garbage cans, some that aren’t even 10 feet away from each other!!
We’re going to take some of those garbage cans and paint over them with a bright green and blue
(colors are tentative) to differentiate them from the garbage cans. We’re going to have SLHS staff and
students paint them, so we’re building a sense of community where anyone can be a part of this project.
It’ll allow our own SLHS members to feel a sense of pride in painting the garbage cans and they will want
to actually use it (correctly).
My group’s advisor actually had a meeting with one of our principals today about allowing us to make
the project happen. I haven’t heard yet on how it went, but my advisor said our principal was already a
tentative “yes” and that they have a good relationship, so I’m sure we’re already on our way to getting
those recycle bins. I don’t see what would prevent us from increasing the number of recycle bins in our
school. It’s just a matter of putting it into action now.
As for getting compost bins, that’ll take another meeting to get approval. But before we ask our
principal, we have to do some research and a lot of planning. Where will the bins be located? Will a
there be a strong smell coming from the compost bins? Who will empty them? Will we convert more
garbage cans into compost bins as well?
After the development stage, we ask for approval. With all our planning and research, we’ll be able to
answer any question our principal has. Once we get it approved, action time!
Who: Everyone and anyone who is interested in taking on this project, administration, and janitorial
staff.
We’ll need the administration’s approval, but if they’re interested in contributing to the project,
welcome aboard! Our school has about 8 service clubs and several art classes that will be sure to help us
paint the garbage cans. We’ll have to make our janitorial staff aware so they know which bin is for
recycling, which is for garbage, and in the future, which is for compost.
We already have GreenWay (obviously) and special education classes on board for the recycling. The
special education class collects water bottles from the recycle bins around school, so they’re stoked to
see more recycle bins around. They’ve also offered to help if we need it.
Challenges: I haven’t done any research for compost bins, but if a bad smell comes out of them due to
rotting food, that might be an issue with the janitors. I don’t want them to have to suffer nor do they
want to suffer either.
A big challenge is ensuring that students and staff separate their waste correctly. Yes, we will bring more
recycle bins and later compost bins to SLHS, but will our school just ignore them and dump their wastes
into whatever bin they feel like for conveniency and/or ambivalence?
Research: There was a time when our Earth was covered with vast forests that were home to a myriad
of species. However, once the human race began to progress in technology, humans destroyed more
and more forests for lumber and food. Yes, we would have been a sustainable society if we had only
used what the forests provided us, but we went overboard and demolished them to build factories and
homes, have a supply of building materials and food, and for wealth (i.e. land). The Kogi tribe, a preColombian tribe that was long-lost, came out of its shell in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, about 25
years ago, to warn us about the decay of our world. The Kogi tribe isolated itself for centuries and are
said to have the memory when the Spaniards came and wrought havoc in their region in 1498. They
believe the Sierra Nevada to be the "Mother" and "Heart of the World" and that they are the "Elder
Brothers", the guardians of life on Earth. They came out in 1988 to allow a BBC journalist to film a
documentary about their culture and the destruction of their sacred mountain to warn us that we, the
"Younger Brother", are destroying the Earth, which may affect the future generation.
As our natural resources are dwindling, prices for natural resources are going up because of the
decrease in resources. SLHS is still oblivious to the unhealthy environment they live in, and bringing
these particular bins in will hopefully influence our students and staff to make some changes in their
lives.
Northeast Elementary Magnet School brought a lot of healthier changes to their school, such as fresh
lunch, a garden, and more fitness programs. This affected ALL staff and students in the school. Not only
that, one of the students’ mother weighed 150 pounds. In one year, she lost 100 pounds because her
child taught the mother about healthier living through the programs that were brought to their school.
The child brought the practices from the school back home.
I hope that will happen with these bins. If we push students and staff to recycle more and compost, they
will bring that eco-conscious mindset wherever they go and influence others to make the change.
Vision: I hope to see the recycling part of my project accomplished. I want to see people throwing all
their recyclables into the recycle bins and less waste accumulating in our garbage cans. I hope to see
that we accumulate support from the recycling part transfer into the compost bin part, where we shall
begin a new project with the compost bins.
Jenny, San Leandro High School