America Recycles Day—Nov. 15—falls in the middle of American Education Week this year and students at Parkville's Villa Cresta Elementary School are doing their part to pitch in.
The school's Green Team, , is taking up a collection during the mornings—they're looking for aluminium cans, plastic bags and batteries along with other items in order to promote recycling in the community.
"If the weather is nice we'll be outside, if not then we'll be in the lobby," said Stephanie Foy, a Villa Cresta teacher and green team advisor.
Members of the community are welcome to drop off recyclables, but Foy said it would be best if they could reach out to a student.
"Anyone, whether they have a student and Villa Cresta or not, is welcome to drop stuff off," she said. "Ideally, if you know a kid who goes to Villa Cresta give it to them to drop off. They will get prizes and it teaches them responsibility. We're trying to coach the kids to go to their neighbors and see if they have any of this stuff. It would be great if the neighbor reached out and said 'oh I hear you are collecting recyclables, can you take this to school for me?'"
Foy said that she hopes the Green Team's recycling drive has an impact outside of the school.
"We're helping kids to identify what can and can’t be recycled and trying to get more people to do single stream at home," Foy said. "You know, they'll say 'Mom and dad don’t throw that in the trash did you know you can recycle that?'"
On the whole, the Green Team is going strong and still growing.
"We want kids at a young age to kind of live this, so that as they grow older they will have it as a habit that they will be a recycling person," Foy said. "This year we had so many third graders apply for the team that we couldn’t even take them all. It is growing and we're trying to grow it downward so that the little ones come up with this already in their heads."
