The Boca Ciega High School Ecology Club is excited to be involved in a project that will allow our school to remove most of our metals from the waste stream. Mrs. Nelson, our principal, was contacted by Best Metal Recycling to see if we would be interested in having a metals recycling bin on campus with a portion of the proceeds of the aluminum recycling returned to the school.
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We were/are excited about the opportunity to increase our impact and look forward to involving as much of our school and local communities as possible.
The great thing about this project is that it's not just aluminum that will be recycled. Best Metals Recycling is accepting all waste metals and they will sort them at their facility in Clearwater.
Looking at the possibilities we thought that the effort to promote and support the opportunity should start with our teachers and students before promoting it to our immediate area. We placed a poll to which teachers could respond to and were pleased to have the following results.
Pct. Participation
68.8% • I allow students to have beverages, that may be in cans, in my room.
93.8% • I would like to participate in the metals recycling program in some fashion.
50.0% • I would like to participate by bringing in recyclables from home.
50.0% • I would like more information about integrating ecology into my curriculum.
Avg. Process
1.81 • I would like a weekly pick up outside of my classroom.
1.06 • I would like students sent to my classroom individually during the school day.
1.38 • I would like to send a student to a collection point during the school day as needed.
Looking at the data it was clear that our teachers wanted to participate but required some flexibility in the process. We decided to offer pick up, with our regular newspaper pick up or allow them drop off their metals at different collection points throughout the school. As we don't have large collection bins, as of yet, the metals can be taken to portable 12 or to the bin adjacent to the student parking lot.
I would like to thank Best Metal Recycling, our survey respondents, Mrs. Nelson, our maintenance and custodial staff, and especially our faculty whose commitment, patience and continued feedback will ensure our success. |
