Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Second-grader Kirstie Lee puts her lunch tray in the recycling bin at Argonaut School. Argonaut students learn to clean up their recyclables By Michelle Alaimo Students at Argonaut School will need to clean up their act if they want their recycling program to continue at its current successful pace. Green Valley Disposal notified principal Sue Brooks last week that some of the Styrofoam lunch trays have food left stuck on them, causing contamination in the recycling program. "We got a load of Styrofoam that was very dirty," said Phil Couchee, general manager of Green Valley Disposal. "The food is just causing a lot of contamination." He added that Green Valley Disposal is not asking the school to stop the program, just clean up the trays before putting them in the recycling bin. In the last year, students have cut the school's garbage by 50 percent by recycling Styrofoam trays, milk containers, juice boxes, mixed paper, plastics and cans, Brooks said. Brooks said the school has no plans to discontinue the program, but is looking into ways of making the trays cleaner. However, having the children dip their trays in water to clean them off is not an option, Brooks said. She added the school tried that method about five years ago and ended up with water all over the cafeteria floor. The elementary students have been learning about recycling in Victoria De Martini's first- to third-grade science classes. De Martini first started teaching recycling in her science classes four years ago. "I started teaching [at Argonaut] and doing lunch duty and I started to notice a lot of things weren't being recycled," De Martini said. She then decided to join forces with day custodian Hank Hardy to see what could be done. Together, the two developed the recycling program that now exists at the school. "We're just saving our Earth," Hardy said. According to Hardy, there is a recycling bin in each classroom and two 50-pound bins in each wing of the school. Hardy said he started recycling at the school approximately seven years ago, but the program really took off when De Martini introduced recycling to students. "With the environment, we've got to do it," Hardy said. "Down the road, we will have less land fill because of it." Hardy had a goal last year to reduce the garbage at the school by 50 percent. Now that he has done that--with the students' help--he hopes to expand the program into other Saratoga Union School District schools. The plans have been temporarily put on hold, Brooks said, until they can be certain what is allowed to remain on the Styrofoam trays. In the meantime, a representative from Green Valley Disposal will discuss recycling with students, and Brooks said Green Valley has offered to let students take a field trip to the disposal yard to see what happens to their recyclables. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, September 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.