Menallen students, community embrace recycling programs

By Marilyn Forbes
Daily Courier

Published: Saturday, May 26, 2012, 3:25?p.m.
Updated 10 hours ago

The students at Menallen Elementary have learned many things throughout the school year, including the benefits of recycling.

The students take part in two recycling programs, within the school and at home.

The newer of the two programs is called Greenopolis, an initiative that helps to educate children on the benefits of recycling.

Volunteer Janet Gallagher visits the school twice every week to weigh donated recyclables, which include plastic, aluminum and tin.

Since it was introduced in January, the school has collected about 4,000 pounds of recyclable materials for the Greenopolis project.

"They are doing a great job," school media specialist/librarian and project coordinator Christa Sabatula said. "It just keeps getting bigger and bigger."

Sabatula said that the recycling was welcomed not only in the school, but in the community.

"We don't have recycling here in Menallen Township, so there were people who were happy about this," Sabatula said.

The school was recently informed that is it is now 36th in the nation for recycling with the Greenopolis program.

"I think that is pretty impressive," Gallagher said. "We are just this little school and we are up against big high schools. It's amazing what these students are doing."

The children are also taking part in another recycling program, called Terracycle which recycles previously nonrecyclable or hard-to-recycle items from juice box pouches to toothpaste tubes.

Working with items taken from the cafeteria, classrooms and brought from home, a group of students who help to oversee the programs spend time every day on the process of sorting and packaging the items to recycle.

"Our recycling team is doing a great job," Principal Paula Work said. "We have the seven students who do it daily and also a few parent volunteers who help."

Work added that many students are now bringing items into the school for the project.

"It's amazing to see the students getting off the buses and dragging a garbage bag behind them with recyclables," Work said. "These kids are working together for a common good."

Students are not only enjoying the recycling, but feel thrilled to be a part of a project that is geared toward the environment.

"Recycling is important to me because it saves the planet," student Sadie Huhn said.

"Recycling is a good thing and it is also helping us to raise money for the school," student Kali Ternitsky said.

The money raised from the recycling will go to the purchases of new playground equipment that will include handicapped-accessible items for the students.

In addition to the recycling money, the committee that is raising the funds for the playground equipment, led by Sabatula, have raised $16,000 to date through fundraising and grants.

"Our goal is $20,000, and we'll get there," Sabatula said.

For now, the students will concentrate on what they can reuse, recycle or collect for the programs.

"The children are learning what they can do for the planet," Work said. "They are learning how to keep the planet healthy."

And they are keeping hundreds of pounds of items from hitting the area landfills by spending time on their programs.

"Everyone's garbage is our treasure," Sabatula said. "and everyone here is learning to recycle. That is what we want to teach the kids. We want them to learn this and continue to do is."

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