Monticello Schools creating a plan for greater recycling

"...not only is it the right thing to do for our environment, it also helps our children create good habits for the future..."

January 2008

With landfills inching rapidly towards their maximum capacities, recycling has become an essential component to the health of our future, both locally and globally. Individuals and businesses everywhere need to increase their awareness and efforts to create and comply with recycling plans as part of their responsibility towards sustaining our planet.

With the local situation at the Sullivan County Landfill becoming more critical, the Monticello Central School District has decided to revamp and upgrade its recycling program in an attempt to make a bigger difference and have a greater positive impact on the environment and within the community.

According to the district’s Director of Facilities & Operations John Travis, during the past decade, there has been a variety of small recycling programs in each of the schools but never a formal district plan. Now that’s going to change. Travis, working along side Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Michel and Sullivan County Recycling Coordinator Bill Cutler, recently went “dumpster diving” through some of the high school’s dumpsters to analyze what refuse the school was generating. As the year progresses, dumpsters throughout the district will be analyzed in the same way to see what people are throwing out.

Officials will then work together to create a realistic plan to maximize each school’s recycling potential. But it doesn’t stop there. Every building in which the district has offices, will also be a part of the recycling program. The ultimate goal being to recycle all things possible, including cardboard, newspapers, mixed papers, cans and plastic bottles.

Though the new recycling program is still in the planning stages, full implementation is scheduled to begin with the 2008-09 school year. Still, the district wants to take things a step further. With the help of Cutler, school district administrators are being schooled on other ways, besides recycling, that could help diminish its solid waste.

“With a little creative thinking, certain items may be able to be reused rather than discarded,” explained Cutler. “It may also be possible to reduce waste by being aware of certain factors prior to purchasing items, such as unnecessary super-sized plastic packaging, which due to its chemical composition is not recyclable.”

One idea that Cutler suggested was to reuse copy paper boxes or unused garbage pails as recycle bins to save on the cost of the many new bins that will be needed for the district-wide program. Though presently, Dr. Michel is researching grant money from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and Sullivan Renaissance that may cover the price of the bins. In effect, that could mean the new program may be able to be implemented without any cost to the district.

As an added economic bonus, the district may be able to actually save money on its waste disposal fees because its garbage pickups will weigh less and thus ultimately cost less. And recycling is free!

Though the new program is a great idea, for it to be effective officials will need the cooperation of all students, staff and faculty. School Superintendent Dr. Michel is confident that compliance to the new rules will come in time.

“I think everyone will realize that not only is it the right thing to do for our environment, it also helps our children create good habits for the future,” said Dr. Michel. “We can be successful and make this work if everyone participates and cooperates.”

As far as plans for the distant future, district officials are hoping to explore possible options for composting as well.

Photo: From left, Monticello Schools Director of Facilities & Operations John Travis and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Patrick Michel discuss the contents of one of the high school’s dumpsters with Sullivan County Recycling Coordinator Bill Cutler in an effort to analyze what is being thrown out and how the district can improve and expand its recycling program. Original photo by Monticello High School senior John Bryant.

Click here to read the story by Times Herald-Record reporter Adam Bosch.

Click here to check out the Sullivan County web site which features the quarterly Recycling Newsletter.

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