Earth Force partnered with Kelly Breeding-Kornuszko and Colleen Johnson of Youth Works to help Northeast High School ESL students start a recycling program at school. These students were born in countries spanning the globe and brought a diversity of knowledge and experience to share. When Northeast administrators instituted a recycling policy and put recycling cans throughout the school, the Earth Force group was curious why most students still didn’t recycle. They were determined to make a change.
First, the group members each surveyed five of their fellow students. According to one survey, as many as half of the classmates were indifferent to the idea of recycling! So the Earth Forcers embarked on an education campaign. They wrote and designed many informative flyers such as “Five Reasons to Recycle” and “What is Recycling?” They distributed hundreds to teachers and posted them in the school. They found that students recycled more when their teachers were enthusiastic about recycling or instituted classroom recycling policies.
While it was disappointing to see so many bottles overflowing trash cans instead of recycling containers, the students agreed that the next step should be to enlist the support of more teachers. In addition to making more people in the school aware through flyers and posters, Earth Force students also asked for a recycling bin to be placed in the cafeteria next the trash bin and set up an informative page on the school website.
The students also restored a section of stream bank in Pennypack Park by planting more than 200 trees. During the winter, the students learned how trees help keep soil from eroding into the creeks from Brian Rudnick of the Philadelphia Water Department. In order to learn more about watershed protection, students met with members of the Senior Environment Corps, who helped them conduct water testing and took them on field trips to the Schuylkill Center, the Philadelphia Zoo and the Fairmount Water Works. These trips exposed the students to a wide range of regional organizations focused on environmental concerns and gave the students ideas about future employment opportunities.