By Yuxi Smith

When I was in middle school, I was told that LMSD does not recycle. To my surprise, this rumor was verified one day when I saw a custodian dump paper and trash cans into the same big bin!

After joining the Green Council last spring, I found out the truth: LMSD does not recycle. If students and faculty don’t recycle, how can we expect our custodians to do the same? It’s simple and obvious; if you don’t throw trash into the right bins, nothing may be recycled.

Let’s say you finish drinking your bottle of juice in English class. The nearest yellow bin is out in the hallway and you want to get rid of your bottle now. So you throw the bottle into the nearest bin, a blue one. Maybe someone named Sally Ann, also in your class, recycles all the time. Over the course of the week, she has recycled all of her papers into the same blue bin in which you just dumped your juice bottle.

However, the sticky sweet liquid from your bottle stains Sally Ann’s papers. When the custodian finally picks up the blue bin, he sees a build up of paper, all stained with sugary liquid. The paper plant won’t accept such papers. Sally Ann’s papers are all thrown into the general trashcan and taken to the landfill.

You have just wasted an entire week’s worth of paper recycling, and Sally Ann’s recycling efforts went to waste.

Are you a contaminator or are you Sally Ann? Either way, you are not really making a difference for the environment. Paper bin contamination is a huge problem in this school. But there’s still good news! Although yellow bins are sometimes contaminated with Styrofoam, food, and candy wrappers, custodians try their best to recycle all they can—bottles are mostly being recycled.

Then again, this should not be a custodian’s job. It is your responsibility to recycle and not to contaminate.

Do you really care about the environment? Do your actions show that you really care? The environmental problems we face today are caused by our own irresponsibility and ignorance.

Perhaps you think, “It’s okay—no one else recycles anyway.” Maybe you don’t even think twice about contaminating bins. Imagine millions thinking that way, and how many things won’t get recycled. Well, that’s how millions of people think each day and that’s how billions of things don’t get recycled.

Does LMSD recycle? That’s a question for YOU to answer.