Transcript Slide 1

Westminster Recycles CCC3
FINAL CHALLENGE
Lauren Wray, Gia Garrett, Melissa Klein, Alexis Kirton, Meron Woldetensae
The Westminster Schools
1424 West Paces Ferry Road, NW
Atlanta, Georgia 30327
404-355-8673
High School
REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
For the Land Challenge, the Campus
Conservation Corps(CCC) addressed the
environmental issue of recycling. Because
recycling is such a crucial topic for our
generation and those to come, our team
decided to focus not only on recycling, but to
take it up a level and include reducing,
reusing, and various other methods of
recycling.
The three R’s are some of the simplest and
effective ways of saving and preserving our
earth. Recycling reduces water pollution,
saves energy, creates jobs, reduces global
warming, saves trees, and so much more.
The global environment clearly needs
protection and care and by making changes
in our local community, we become one step
closer to making changes in the world. After
all, the earth has been alive for billions of
years and it deserves a billion more.
To learn more about why we think recycling is
important view our post “Top Ten Reasons to
Recycle” on our blog
http://westminsterrecycles.blogspot.com/.
OBJECTIVE
“In the end,
we will conserve only what we love,
we will love only what we understand,
we will understand only what we are taught.”
- Baba Dioum
Our team strives to educate and promote the reducing, reusing, and
recycling of our resources around campus and in our communities. In
order to do so, we aim to:
 Raise awareness and educate those about the three R’s on and off
campus
 Significantly increase the amount of materials recycled in the 20072008 school year to that of last year
 To expand the number of recycling programs and increase their
effectiveness
 Increase the accessibility of recycling bins on the Westminster
campus to facilitate the efforts we will make encouraging people to
recycle
ACTION PLAN
Why don’t people recycle? We believe there are four main reasons:
1. They’re too lazy
2. They forget
Go Ape for
3. They don’t care
recycling!
4. They are uninformed
With the intention of eliminating these excuses, we recommend
everyone “Go A.P.E. for Recycling”. Our Action Plan is as follows:
A: Awareness. Spread the word! By increasing people’s knowledge
about the benefits of the three R’s, it will encourage them to take
action.
P: Participation: Get people involved! Individually, as a family, as a
community, as a nation, and as a world. By participating, you can
make an impact on the earth!
E: Elimination: Eliminate excuses! Eliminate ignorant attitudes! Eliminate
the threats to our planet that recycling can help resolve!
STEPS TO INCREASE ‘A.P.E.’
With the continual presence and accessibility of bins, people
will become more aware of the recycling program and feel
more obliged to use it.
PAPER BINS
 We placed a paper recycling bin next to every rubbish bin in
every classroom and hallway. This will prevent any paper
from being trashed instead of recycled.
 We placed a paper recycling bin next to every printer. Since
the printers have a notorious reputation for not working,
any unwanted or wasted paper can either be reused or
recycled.
 After services, such as the Easter and Christmas events,
we placed bins outside the auditorium so the attendees
can recycle their programs immediately.
PLASTIC BOTTLES AND ALUMINUM CANS
 We placed one bin in each hallway next to the water
fountain. That way, people can either reuse the bottles or
recycle them.
 We put 3 bins in the cafeteria for recycling milk containers
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BATTERY RECYCLING
Westminster students are continually replacing their
calculator batteries. Placing collection boxes for used
batteries in the math and science rooms throughout the
Jr. High and High School is an easy, convenient disposal
location.
FLYERS
Spread educational flyers around campus, informing
others about the importance of recycling.
Every time a student accesses their school account, a
pop-up pops up saying “Please Recycle, Conserve Paper,
Print only what you need.”
Each day in the morning announcements, we have a ‘fun
fact’ encouraging recycling and other environmentally
friendly methods.
T-SHIRTS
We sold t-shirts to raise awareness of the CCC and its
mission and to raise money for Trees Atlanta, a local
environmental non-profit organization. The shirts show
the logo of the CCC on the front with the Cs made from
the phrase, "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle." On the back is our
catchy slogan, "Word to your Mother ... EARTH!“
BLOG
Through our online blog, we encourage the three R’s
lifestyle and show alternative methods to reducing,
reusing, and recycling.
http://westminsterrecycles.blogspot.com/

We implemented an ‘Adopt a recycling bin’ program. We enlisted more than 30
volunteers to ‘Adopt a Recycling Bin,’ which will consist of each student taking
responsibility for one recycling bin on campus, bagging the recycling from that bin at
regular intervals, and transporting the bags to a central location on campus.

For Christian Emphasis Week, the chosen topic was Environmental Stewardship. The
CCC played an encouraging role in the selection of the topic. Assemblies were
scheduled to promote environmental awareness and stewardship. Discussion groups
were scheduled afterwards, allowing the audience to participate through dialogue.
We joined The Green Schools Alliance and US Green Building Council. This will be
especially helpful when we renovate our Campus Center early next year. All new
furniture for the campus center project will need to be reused furniture or "green" new
furniture. All construction materials will need to be green also - paint, flooring, etc.

MAN’S NEGATIIVE EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
There are many steps we can take to help eliminate our negative
impact environment. Besides the ones previously mentioned, here are
some of the most significant.

Recycling…Battery recycling: When not properly disposed, batteries
can release harmful toxins into the environment, polluting water as
the metal vaporizes into the air when burned and exposing the
environment to lead and acid.
To solve this problem, a battery recycling system was implemented.
All kinds of batteries are taken, ranging from watch batteries to 9
volt ones. They are then collected by a company called Southern
Recycling.

Reducing…Switching to unbleached napkins: Chlorine bleached
fiber comes directly from a tree. If every household in the United
States replaced just one package of virgin fiber napkins with 100%
recycled ones, we could save 1 million trees. Therefore, our
cafeteria has just switched to Totally Chlorine Free napkins, a brown
recycled paper product in hopes of reducing our impact.

Reusing…Using Bio-diesel fuel instead of traditional. Westminster
has started making its own bio-diesel from the cafeteria's waste
vegetable oil. The bio-diesel is being used in the school's lawn
equipment. It takes 4-5 days to process a batch of waste canola oil
into bio-diesel and requires removing the glycerin. Bio-diesel is free
from sulfur and aromatics which are found in traditional fuels. Most
importantly, biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, and non-toxic. So
safe, in fact, that everyday table salt has been proven more toxic.
OUR TEAM
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Each team member shares the same
responsibilities. It is each of our
responsibilities to foster awareness by gently
reminding people around campus to be
responsible about picking up after
themselves and remember to recycle. We
are each in charge of posting on our blog
periodically and attending meetings. In
short, we are all in charge of living up to
‘A.P.E’. We must each spread awareness
and each participate in the 3 R’s lifestyle,
consequently helping to eliminate the
threats to our planet.
The steps our team has thus far taken on a
local level have already made a larger
impact on the world. By recycling one
aluminum can, it uses 95% less energy than
making new cans from raw materials, saving
enough energy to run a television for three
hours, the equivalent of about half a gallon
of gasoline. Additionally, if thrown away the
can will still be a can in 500 years, but when
recycled, can become part of a new can in
less than six weeks. These small steps, such
as recycling an aluminum can, result in a
huge impact.
COMMUNICATION
We
were on our local news, 11 alive, regarding our ‘Adopt a Recycling Bin’ program.
We also took advantage of our Westminster media outlets to raise awareness about
environmental issues and recycling. We have had articles in our school newspaper,
alumni magazine, parent’s newsletter and thus have been able to reach out to a large
population in an attempt to spread the attitude.
We created a blog, where anyone with internet access can see it. In our blog, we strive
to connect to a different type of audience than the Westminster crowd. We discuss
topics ranging from ways to green up your life to local recycling centers.
 We have a wiki page. There are quizzes, facts, updates, etc.
We
also have a “Westminster CCC” group on facebook that allows us to
communicate with the rest of the student body about upcoming projects or events
such as the Green Cup Challenge and other ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2224989259
Westminster issued press releases the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, THE major
local paper with the greatest local coverage. We are pursuing articles with the
Northside Neighbor.
SUCCESS

We installed a StatCounter on our blog. Results:
Day
Date
Page Loads
Unique Visitors
First Time Visitors
Returning Visitors
Sun
03/23/08
11
2
2
0
Mon
03/24/08
9
6
4
2
Tues
03/25/08
5
1
0
1
Wed
03/26/08
1
1
1
0
Thurs
03/27/08
2
2
1
1
With our assemblies and recycling awareness, our message was projected to
a student body of 1,826 and a faculty of 271.
 We sold a total of 75 T-Shirts (a profit of about $450!) 100% of the donations
went to Trees Atlanta.
 The Westminster robotics team, The Green Team,
took our “Green message” with them to the
Peachtree Regional Tournament, introducing
our message to 50 other teams from 5 states.
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SUCCESS CONT.
30-35
gallons of used cafeteria canola oil converted to 20
gallons of biodiesel. This is used to run the grounds
equipment and fork lifts. Learn more about biodiesel fuel at
Westminster.
 Alumni magazines and parents newsletters have also
contributed to spread the word to a number of people outside
of our community.
 Articles printed in the school newspaper, The Bi-Line. As one
of our high school students wrote in a recent newspaper
article about the CCC's activities: "Overall, this year looks to be
filled with great ideas and changes for better, for what can’t be
accomplished with a room filled with caffeine-energized,
idealistic teenagers with a goal?"
 100
lbs of batteries collected. This
is a considerable amount
considering most batteries weigh
less than .05 grams!
SUCCESS CONT.
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16 New recycling bins, which led to an
increase in recycled materials
We have also inspired students to
extend their recycling. Many, besides
from recycling at school, have also
started local curbside pickup in their
neighborhoods, such as DeKalb
County Recycling and Fulton County
Recycling. They are often shocked to
find how much once trashed material
has now become recycled. A
Westminster sophomore states, “On
weekly average, we recycle about 3
pounds of plastic at home. It’s hard to
imagine that all of that used to go into
the landfills!”
HOW FUNDS WOULD BE USED…
Our team and school would like to dedicate the money towards one of the most
effective methods of reusing… solar panels for our school. Westminster has
already started dabbling in renewable energy sources, such as biofuel, but our
next major step would be solar panels. The average cost for solar panels for
housing is about $35,000. While this is very expensive, we believe that the
funds gained would help us to take a step in the right direction. These solar
panels could possibly be used for water heating, building heating, ventilation, air
conditioning, and electricity.
We would also like to consider using some of the money for additional bottle bin
collection containers or for outdoor paper & bottle collection containers.
Although we did get 16 new bins, there are still not enough to accommodate the
large Westminster student body. More bins would satisfy the demand, resulting
in a higher turnout of recycled materials. Lastly, we currently do not have any
outdoor paper or bottle collection containers outside. Our campus is large and
scheduling requires switching buildings for various subjects. Because of this,
many students throw away bottles and paper away in the outside trashcans. If
we had recycling bins placed next to them, it would alleviate the problem.
“You must be
the change you
wish to see in
Reduce
the
world.”
Reuse
- GhandiRecycle