The New York Times (nytimes.com) September 24, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Reading, Writing, Recycling
By CHRISTINE O’CONNELL and R. LAWRENCE SWANSON
Stony Brook
SCHOOLS on Long Island are breaking the law by not recycling. For the most part, our research has found that New York State public school districts, including those here on the Island, do not recycle (or do so minimally). And yet it is state law that each municipality have a recycling code. Although schools are subject to municipal recycling laws, many Long Island school districts do not cooperate, citing excuses like costs and difficulties in negotiating union contracts with custodians and finding haulers. Some school officials even maintain that they don’t have to follow municipal law.
But these excuses are simply not acceptable. Teachers have called our office, asking how they can encourage school recycling. They have told us about students trying to start recycling programs only to see the janitors throw carefully separated recyclables in with other trash.
Given that schools produce a huge amount of paper waste, as well as large quantities of tin, aluminum and plastic trash, it is irresponsible for school districts not to recycle and promote sustainable values. The subject of recycling should be an integral part of every school’s environmental and earth sciences curriculum. Any course on the environment that ignores conservation and resource management, beginning with waste reduction and recycling, is doing a disservice to the student body and the community. Recycling reduces waste and helps conserve natural resources and energy.
What better place to learn and practice resource management and waste reduction than in our schools’ Teachers need not only to educate students about the importance of resource management and recycling, but also to put these practices to work in the classroom. For example, teachers can encourage students to use both sides of a piece of paper and keep a scrap paper bin in the classroom for students to use for rough drafts. Paper could be recycled in the classroom, plastics and cans in the lunchroom, and toner and inkjet cartridges in the library and computer labs.
In addition, school administrators could reduce paper waste through the expanded use of e-mail.
Although recycling programs often involve start-up costs, including buying bins for each classroom, negotiating contracts with recycling companies and training employees, the long-term savings for schools may be considerable. For example, according to the Town of Brookhaven, the cost for removal and disposal of school trash can be about seven times higher than that of hauling away and dropping off recyclables. Since up to 80 percent of the waste stream in most schools is recyclable, extensive recycling programs can reduce a school’s waste management budget by as much as 68 percent.
Students, parents and teachers all need to get involved and insist that schools obey state law and recycle. Parents should insist that recycling be an agenda item at the next school board and P.T.A. meetings. School environmental groups and the student government can get involved by starting a student recycling petition or a metal can recycling drive to raise money to buy recycling posters and bins for every classroom.
Towns on Long Island need to make it easy for school districts to participate in recycling programs. Each municipality has a waste management division that could provide resources and guidance to help start local school recycling programs, possibly even providing recycling bins or helping to rewrite the school district’s waste management contract to include the collection of recycled material. Perhaps as a last resort, officials should fine schools for breaking the law or withhold a portion of a school’s state tax dollars for noncompliance.
On average, Americans produce about 4.5 pounds of garbage every day; Long Islanders generate nearly double that. Resource management is a key to society’s well-being, so it is alarming that waste production on the Island continues to increase while household curbside recycling decreases annually. Our schools must do their part to encourage resource management, starting with recycling programs. The beginning of the school year is a great time to start.
Christine O’Connell is a Ph.D. candidate at Stony Brook University’s Marine Sciences Research Center. R. Lawrence Swanson is the director of the university’s Waste Reduction and Management Institute.
