Green Team

The Ashburton Green Team strives to be an environmentally positive example for the Ashburton community. The Green Team works to promote appreciation of the environment, to cultivate and implement ideas to reduce waste, and to encourage students and staff to make choices that help reduce the carbon footprint of our school.

Recycling

Ashburton has recycling bins for cans and bottles stationed throughout the school. The Green Team discovered that many people were putting trash, or “contaminates”, in these recycling bins. When there are contaminates in a recycling bin, the entire bin becomes trash – the cans and bottles from that bin can no longer be recycled.

To help build awareness of this problem, the Green Team Club began collecting weekly data on the number of recyclables and contaminates in the recycling bins throughout the school. Students analyzed the data and posted graphs to each bin to show how many recyclables and contaminates were found in specific bins. The Green Team found that some bins were much more likely to be contaminated than others. Recycling bins by the gym and the breezeway were two of the most contaminated bins, so Green Team students put up additional posters by these bins and moved trash cans directly next to the recycling bins.

The Green Team’s goal is to have zero contaminates in every recycling bin. If you see someone throwing trash in a recycling bin, please stop them and have them throw it in the trash can. If you don’t know if something is recyclable, please look at the poster above the bin. And remember: When in doubt, throw it out!

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