RECYCLING at DMS
Students run and manage our recycling. Each week, students pick-up recycling from each classroom and other locations (office, library, hallways, etc.) around the school.
Our "Go GREEN" seminar class is made up of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. If anyone is recycling improperly, these ambassadors become important advocates for our program(s) when attend classes throughout the school day.
Our Paper Gator recycles: office/school paper, newspapers, hard and soft cover books, catalogs/magazines, phone books, and junk mail.
The Paper Gator is a large dumpster located outside in the southwest portion of DMS, behind the superintendent's office, near the technology services. It's purpose is to help keep the earth green by recycling paper products. After the dumpster fills, it is picked up and recycled at Byron Center, Michigan. Being good stewards of the environment is a great reason to do this, but an added benefit of earning a small amount of money to recycle helps generate funds to continue our recycling efforts. This IS open to the public so please feel free to drop off paper recycling anytime. Thank you for helping us "feed" our Gator regularly.
Special note: do not drop off PLASTIC BAGS full of paper. No plastic products at all are allowed inside our Gator!
Granger picks up and recycles: #1 & #2 plastics and cardboard Granger also has a large dumpster in our parking lot and picks up plastic and cardboard to recycle at their establishment. This is NOT a public drop off dumpster. It is ONLY for school use.
Hosting an Environmental Guest Speaker:
Our environmental science classes hosted the education coordinator, Chris Hewitt, from Clinton County Waste Management. From his visit, we learned the importance of being good stewards on our planet. A lively discussion occurred about the impact of practicing 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). Students were able to see and hear about items made out of recycled material(s), such as t-shirts made from pop bottles, hair/wigs made from plastic milk jugs, etc. We learned how long specific items would take to decay in a landfill, un-recycled. A competitive “Recycle Jeopardy” review game culminated our learning time together. Recycled pencils made out of money, jeans, and newspapers were given to each student.
Valuable Resources:
How a recycling facility works - follow the container (1:56): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b16PUZWDQM0
Reading Rainbow tour of a recycling facility (6:23): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX55cKJvg-g
Follow up GAME on building a recycling facility to sort material: http://iwanttoberecycled.org/game
Solar Panel Grant Contest https://www.ecocenter.org/my-solar-school-contest
Wind Farm info for Gratiot County - a combination of (1) Beebe Community Wind Farm, LLC (2) Gratiot County Wind, LLC. (Both are Shell companies, under DTE.)
Solar Powered Trash Compactors; approximately $3,800 per can, (3:33): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e8Be9rq_C8