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From a classroom on the second floor, students at Hazelwood West Middle School fan out across the building, gathering blue plastic bins as they walked. Jill Carles, a Spanish teacher, sponsors a group of students who handle the school’s recycling responsibilities.

“We do this so as not to have any paper put into a landfill,” she said. “I’m just passionate about recycling. I want to do more for the Earth and the environment.”

“It feels good to help your environment,” said eighth grade student Javon Brown. “Some trees are already getting cut down. For people it’s better if you recycle good paper over and over again,” said eighth grade classmate Skyler Mitchell.

As they gather bins, approximately 30 of them, from all over campus, the students take them to the rear of the school. A green and yellow metal dumpster from the Abitibi Corporation waits in the back to collect the papers.

“I see the amount of paper we waste; it motivates me to want to do this,” Carles said. “I did this for years at Hazelwood West High School and when we came here, I needed to be the one to recycle here.” Carles said recycling has a ripple effect for the students.

“By me supporting this effort, the kids are more involved and they are recycling at home as well,” she said.

Carrying multiple bins can be challenging, the students learned. “It’s hard to walk down the stairs safely with a bin,” said eighth grade student A.J. Lester. “If you go too slowly, the bins put too much weight on your arms,” said eighth grader Jordan Thomas.

Another goal Carles wants to achieve is to put plastic bins in the cafeteria for recycling the plastic water and juice bottles that students buy from the vending machines. She hopes this will reduce and eventually eliminate the number of them that end up in the cafeteria trash cans.

The Abitibi containers, called Paper Retrievers, allow people to deposit clean, dry paper products, such as newspapers, catalogs, magazines and mail, free of charge. The paper from each container is weighed and a monthly statement detailing that weight is issued to each place that has a paper retriever container. Accompanying the statement is a check for the amount of the amount of paper collected.

“We haven’t done anything with our earnings yet,” Carles said. “We have about $200 since the beginning of last year, when we started.”

In addition, communication skills teacher Jon Minney put recycling bins in the teacher’s lounge for them to use. Once a week, he takes those filled bins to St. Ferdinand Park in Florissant, where the city’s recycling center is located.

Abitibi’s Consolidated Recycling Division estimates that it saves more than 2.2 million cubic yards of landfill space annually with its recycling efforts.

(Story courtesy of the Hazelwood District Communications Dept.)

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