Going Green | Teen Ink

Going Green

October 23, 2008
By Tamberly Donato BRONZE, El Cajon, California
Tamberly Donato BRONZE, El Cajon, California
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

It’s time for change, not only in our world but also for Granite Hills. Each year approximately one billion trees worth of paper are thrown away. In the U.S. Americans use eighty-five million tons of paper a year, that’s about six-hundred and eighty per person. Recycling-(revolution.com) just by recycling a two-thousand pounds of paper it could save seventeen trees, three-hundred and eighty gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, four-thousand kilowatts of energy, seven-thousand gallons of water recycling-revolution .com says.
If we, Granite Hills students change many of our daily habits we could help our planet one piece of paper at a time. Granite is a school with tons of paper and plastic bottles. Though many teachers have their own recycle box in class that does not help the outside of the school. We don’t have any special recycle bins outside around the school to put unused paper and empty bottles. By recycling this could not only help the planet but it could also help any of our schools financial issues.
Granite’s own science teacher, Mr. McKenzie, has found his own way to help the planet and his classes competition trips. “I have placed my own recycle bins in my classroom so that when they are recycled we take the money given to us and use them to go to our Science Research Seminar competitions.” Regarding Granites efforts of trying to help our planet, “I don’t think very much attention is paid to the fact we could earn more money and do good by recycling” McKenzie said. “We could possibly have an elective or a club like the Green Club that takes a weekend every month and has recycle days where people in the community could recycle and do it right here from our school” McKenzie said.
We can do so much to help our planet and to help with any class competitions, parties, or supplies that need extra money to do so by recycling. We can also use reusable water bottles to lower the amount of plastic use, turn of the lights, air conditioners etc. and use less energy. There’s also not having automatic toilets, sinks or lights so we could turn them on and off ourselves to safe more energy and save money for our school. If each student at Granite lends a hand and the staff accommodates the needs we could become a school that could go green.


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