By YES! Coordinator Sarah Gainey
Throwing our recycling into containers around a building is secondhand nature to most of us. But how many of us know what happens next? How do those bottles and cans make the trip to close the loop and be turned into something else? The YES! team at ROCORI high school knows exactly what happens to those containers and I spent an afternoon with them finding out the answer.
Each Friday afternoon after school the YES! team gathers in coach Barb Omann’s room to discuss their projects and fuel up on snacks before donning gloves and heading out to collect the week’s recycling from the middle and high school. The YES! team is the link between someone throwing a recyclable container into a bin and those materials making it to the large bins outside where they are picked up and taken to the recycling center. I was so impressed with their willingness to sort through all the other trash that ends up in the recycling container to make sure just the recycling ends up in the bin. They even stop to look in some of the trash containers, to make sure no recyclables are missed. Amazing work for a group of students on a Friday afternoon!
The team also volunteered to pick up trash and recyclables after their homecoming parade this year. They walked behind the rest of the parade with signs advertising their club and their World Wear shoe collection. They also collected any trash and recyclables from the parade route, filling almost 3 bags of garbage. The ROCORI YES! team should be congratulated on pushing up their sleeves and ensuring the recycling program at their school happens successfully!
