Did you know that 80% of what we throw away is recyclable? West Middle School needs to step up and recycle. Most students throw away their recyclables and trash without thinking. West students are unaware that landfills are not made to decompose materials, only to store them. Recycling is the right choice.

West has to pay per dumpster for trash and recycling removal. West only recycles paper. For West to buy another dumpster for recycling, it would cost over $200 per year, and that would be just for one school. Mr. Smiley, West Middle school’s Principle stated, “Its bigger than just West Middle School, it all the middle schools because we all have to do the same thing.” There are 22 schools. This would mean 22 times the amount of money. We would have to also include the other schools in the Plymouth-Canton district and there are 22 schools. So if we were in order to make a fundraiser for recycling we would have to raise 4,400 dollars per year. That is a lot of money just for recycling.

Seventh-grader Ava Boccorossa expressed, “Have someone to talk about it [recycling].” If we had a speaker come in to talk about the importance of recycling it would help because people would know much more about recycling. When people know why something helps they are most likely going to do it more. 

Unfortunately, only 34.7 % of people recycle and 75 % of our trash in the U.S. is recyclable. We need to do more. West needs to make recycling easier for all of the couch potatoes of the 21st century.

Works Cited

“News Release.” It’s “America Recycles Day.” Is the United States Set up for Recycling Success? | U.S. PIRG, UNITED STATES PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP, 15 Nov. 2018, uspirg.org/news/usp/it%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Camerica-recycles-day%E2%80%9D-united-states-set-recycling-success.

Rysavy, Tracy Fernandez. “Americans Are Bad at Recycling. But Only Because We’re Not Trying.” Green America, Green American Magazine, www.greenamerica.org/rethinking-recycling/americans-are-really-bad-recycling-only-because-were-not-trying-very-hard.