Recycle Club

Fourth and fifth graders who meet specific teacher criteria and are selected by their peers are part of the Walnut Acres Recycle Club. The mission of the group is to lead and enhance recycling efforts at school and to raise environmental awareness among the Walnut Acres community. Our “Green Team” consists of 14 fourth and fifth graders who meet twice monthly at lunchtime to learn more about environmental needs in our school and larger community. They occasionally participate in after school field trips that support their learning. Recycle Club members also problem solve to support improved environmental awareness and supportive practices and policies.

To promote proper recycling, composting and trashing at Walnut Acres, the team members implement public relation efforts that include creation and performance of skits, poster design and mounting, and visits to individual classrooms to tell their story or play games that will spread the message.

To support recycling at our site, members provide recycle bin management by emptying recycle containers for each classroom.

To analyze our school’s recycling progress, recycle club members occasionally collect and weigh lunch waste and compost weigh-ins. Members work to reduce our lunch waste by monitoring the recycling process, working together with Terracycle and Colorcycle to provide more efficient recycling opportunities.

To raise awareness of larger environmental needs outside of our school, the recycle club promotes items that will reduce future trashing of our earth, such as their reusable bamboo eating utensils.

In cooperation with our Recycle Club children, we also have a volunteer parents team in our Sustainability Committee, which helps to further provide assistance to the children.