In November, McDowell Early College teacher Jessica Sutton received a grant from the Rutherford Electric Membership Cooperation for her project “Improving the Local Recycling Program through Civic Responsibility.”
Since then she’s been preparing her students for the massive project that will hopefully improve recycling throughout McDowell, especially in and around the McDowell Tech campus.
Sutton kicked off the project by showing students a documentary about the ever-growing problem of garbage into today’s world.
From there, students from her class took a physical survey of the McDowell Tech campus to see what changes could be made.
“Students noted where recycling bins were and were not available, and whether they were or were not being used properly,” stated Sutton. “They discovered that a large number of classrooms and common areas do not have recycling available. They also found many trash cans with recyclable in them, as well as trash in most recycling bins.”
After a brainstorming session, students thought of ways to address some of the issues they saw during their tour.
Ideas included repurposing other containers for recycling bins and having larger recycling containers in the cafeteria, which currently doesn’t have any.
The team of students plans to work with the MTCC board to bring their ideas to life.
“Our next stage is to find out what steps we need to follow to increase the number of recycling bins on campus. We will also begin talking about how to ‘get the message’ to MTCC staff and students to better use them,” said Sutton. “We will also be designing a survey that students will take home and give to friends and family about at-home recycling.”
Sutton hopes to start the group’s field trip stage of the project in February.
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