By: McKelvey Collins

Senior Kathryn Brodie is taking matters of the environment into her own hands. She is planning on starting a school wide recycling program that will sort and get rid of all paper waste in classrooms.

“I’m working on finding a ton of boxes, and then getting permission from the teachers upstairs and downstairs and other classrooms like the music room to let us put boxes in their rooms for paper,” said Brodie.

The students involved, including seniors Sophie Brown, Analise LaRiviere, and Emma Worth, will collect a week’s worth of recycling every Friday after school from classroom recycling boxes and take it to the recycling center down the street from the high school. This group will include several members of the National Honor Society, the Student Council Association, the Green Team, and any other students who are interested in taking part.

“It’s just what a good citizen does, they use their resources well, and we want to teach our students good citizenship,” said Principal Mike Craft. “And that’s part of it, is being a responsible steward of the environment, a steward of the earth. Someone who takes care of the earth and values the resources.”

Senior Jenner Smith is the founder of the Green Team, and is an active participant in implementing this program. The Green Team is a student organization dedicated to improving the school’s carbon footprint and helping the school to recycle.

“What we’re trying to do is work with Principal Craft and the SCA to start a paper recycling initiative,” said Smith. “This will not only help make our school more sustainable, but it will save us more money as well, which we can use to help buy more eco-friendly hand dryers for the bathroom or motion-activated light switches for the classroom.”

Brodie said she believes that the program will have long-term benefits for the school and the student body.

“Recycling not only benefits the school in that it establishes good habits in high schoolers to conserve resources, but it also benefits the world,” said Brodie. “If the school starts controlling its waste properly they lessen their carbon footprint on the world. It’s quite a shame that the school neglects to provide this service on their own, but at least some students are motivated enough to help out.”

The creation of the recycling program will follow the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors’ decision to create a solid waste collection site at Fancy Hill that took place in September. They are concerned about the state of the current landfill and if it will not be able to contain the growing amount of garbage there, which is why the formation of a new site is important. The members of the RCHS recycling program meet at the library after school on Fridays to receive and carry out their hallway assignments.