Mr. Bill Oliver's Environmental Science class recycles over 20 tons of paper a year and saved the school $1420 dollars per year.

"Every ton of paper is 17 trees, and each year we save 340 trees," stated Mr. Oliver. Over the past ten years not only has the class saved our school money, they have saved about 3,400 trees.

All of the paper is poured into BFI recycling bins and half a ton of paper is collected weekly. This is , and saves the school $71 a ton. BFI pays us ten dollars for every ton of paper we have, which averages to about two hundred dollars a year we are making, rather than the $1400 we would be paying.

After disposing the paper, the class has to organize the bottles and cans. Only certain cans can be refunded, and these include Coca Cola and Pepsi products. Water, Gatorade, juices, Powerades, and ice teas are not refunded and also get collected by BFI. Mr. Oliver takes the refundable cans and bottles to Lowell on Taner Street.

"I've been going their for years, so they just take the bag and ask how much we have, it saves us a lot of time," said Mr. Oliver.

So far this year the class has raised $51, and is about to make another $30. The money is spent on things needed in the classroom, like the fish tanks currently being created. During their classes a randomly selected group of students prepare the cart, and go room to room collecting recycling. Each class room, the hallways, library, and offices have a recycling bin of some sort.

According to Sarah Ellis, "Recycling is fun, and it's a good thing to encourage. We get to leave the class for a little and organize all of the things collected in the bins. It's always exciting when Mr. Oliver tells us how much money we got in return, we know all of our hard work paid off."

The students collect the bins and organize the papers and plastics one to two times a week. They have a bin for paper, and a bin for plastic. Our school is encouraging recycling more and more each year, and has currently placed recycling bins in the halls, and outside by the turf field.