Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 2014, Page 60

Description:	theneudents Advocating a (,vt (SAGE) helped make S^p- place in 2014 by implemeRreusable lurfHOAGLANDbefore timeIn Mr. Matthew HoaglandsAP European History class,these seniors dressed up ashistorical figures forHalloween. Here, thecostumes are shown inorder of when they lived.According to a study done by the EPA, Theaverage American produced 4.5 pounds ofwaste every day. Now, South may haveavoided being part of the problem.For the past couple years, theBloomington South environmental club SAGE(Students Advocating a GreenerEnvironment), sponsored by science teacherMs. Amanda Figolah, worked together toimplement greener practices into the school,particularly the cafeteria. There was a focuson the problem of the Styrofoam lunch trays.Junior Margaret Hopkins explained thiswas because we recognized how muchwaste they produced every day.After many years of poorly-functioning,completely non-recyclable Styrofoam trays,SAGE finally reached success. Every visitorto the cafeteria saw the changes. Thestyrofoam trays were replaced with sturdy,purple trays that could be washed andreused. With the disposable trays, South wasproducing 54 44-gallon bags of trash per \day. After the change, this numberdecreased to nine bags. The economic andeducational benefits from this change weremany. The school was previously spending$ 1800 per year on trash bags. With areduction in trash-related costs, that moneycan now be allocated elsewhere.Many South students were directlyinvolved in this decision. There was a datacollection process to find out what effectreusable trays would bring. SAGE alsocommunicated with the cafeteria staff andschool administration to make this changepossible.Seeing how much waste has beenreduced in the lunch room, just because ofone change that we pushed for, marveledHopkins, is amazing.- OLIVIA PFINGSTONNOAH SANDWEISS ABRAHAM LEITEJNG-HWA HANMINHWA CHOI
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/9166
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

Further information on this record can be found at its source.