New Cairo,
South of Police Academy,
Cairo, Egypt
P.O. Box 5 New Cairo, Tagamoa Khamis,
March 31st, 2014
Good afternoon Ms. Dajani,
we are Alia Sabbour, Farah Ibrahim and Laila Gamaledin and we are from G8Y. In english class we have
been researching and investigating about the environment surrounding us. In addition, we have also
been learning about renewable and non-renewable resources in science class. After discussing these
issues with my classmates and teachers, we realized that while MES is a great school, there is waste all
around us. As a result, we came up with suggestions that will help make MES more environmentally
friendly. Modern English School, Cairo needs to change it's environment. Did you know that it takes
55,000 gallons of water to make one ton of paper?
One thing we've noticed here at MES is that all of our trash goes into the same bin. Different types of
material are thrown away together. Trash cans are emptied twice a day, in each classroom and
bathroom. There's about 85 trash cans around the school. Since each trash can is emptied twice a day,
that amounts to about 170 bags of trash per day which amounts to 850 bags of trash a week!! It's better
for all this trash to be recycled and eventually reused rather than all this trash to go to waste. None of us
are really sure where this trash goes but our guess is that it's probably burnt or kept in a landfill which
are both very damaging to the environment. What we could do is have a different trash can for each
material ( a trash can for paper, one for glass, and so on). The trash could then go to recycling plants.
The trash could then be reused instead of it going to waste and damaging our environment. It night be a
bit expensive at first, having to multiply the amount of trash cans by four but in the long run, money and
resources would be saved because we'd reuse the same materials instead of constantly buying new
materials.
Tons of paper is being wasted, instead of using paper, chopping off trees. and putting bad chemicals,
there is a lot of environmentaly friendly resources we could use. Such as using technology to type things
instead of using paper. Paper is being thrown away without using it wisely. Recycling is very nice idea,
instead of throwing paper that we use and get more paper, people could start recycling. Then the
environment will be more clean and saved. For example, in english, miss Vallarino used to give us a lot
of paper, for homework, to write on in class, and for other things, that was a waist of paper. However,
miss Vallarino thought that it was a waist of paper and now all our work is online, or saved on an
electronic device. Sometimes miss Vallarino uses scrap/recycled paper, and that's very good for the
environment. Say that miss Vallarino give us 5 papers 4 days a week for every class, that's approximatley
100 papers, per class, every week. Now 100 papers for 3 classes, in 4 days, every week, is being saved. If
miss V teaches 5 classes per week, that's 500 papers wasted.
Another thing that we noticed that needs to be changed is the Jared Bagel wrappers, we use them way
too much and it wastes a lot of paper that we can us for other things that we might need more of.
Instead of wasting wrappers everyday, we can use serving trays, reusable and washable. According to
Marina, who works at Jared's bagels, she informed me that 100-150 wrappers are used per day, so if
100-150 wrappers are used daily that means an average of 750 wrappers used per week. Therefore, it
would be much better off if we started using serving trays.
Modern English School Cairo becoming an environmentally-friendly school might seem like a big,
expensive step. And to be honest, it might be at first, and people might struggle with it. In the long run
though, we'd be saving lots of money and resources. Modern English School Cairo being
environmentally friendly might attract new students and might even encourage other schools to do the
same. Imagine that, an eco-friendly Cairo. We can be the change.
In conclusion, we believe that there are ways that Modern English School Cairo could be more
environmentally-friendly. We love our school and we think it's great but there's always ways to
improve things. The world is changing for the better, and so should we.
Thank you for your time,
Laila, Farah, Alia (G8Y)