45°
Every day is Earth Day for Rachel Smith and Julia Arsenault. The third graders at Rowayton Elementary check the numbers on all plastic containers before throwing them away. They recycle styrofoam trays and Capri Sun juice boxes. When they bring lunch from home, it is packed in reusable containers not plastic bags.
Not only do Rachel and Julia practice good environmental habits themselves, they are part a group, Junior Girl Scout Troup 246, that has taught their entire school how to recycle. The 20 member troop of third and fourth graders has tripled the amount of recycling at Rowayton through a concentrated grassroots educational campaign that started back in October. Tomorrow, the troop is being awarded certificates of recognition by Mayor Richard Moccia for its efforts at a school wide assembly.
"This has been a student directed effort and it has had a big impact, says Assistant Principal MaryBeth Crupi. It's because of the Girl Scouts that our students are recycling."
At the beginning of the year, the Girl Scouts charged the troop to come up with a green community service project. They chose lunchroom recycling as their mission, since there was already a district-wide initiative to increase recycling in the cafeterias.
We knew right away that this was the project we wanted to take on. The kids really understand recycling; plus the school was asking us to do it. There was a perfect storm of things coming together, says Christie Smith, who with Cathy Nash, is the parent troop leader.
The girls kicked off the project at a school-wide assembly where they performed a skit about recycling. They later went from class to class and reinforced key messages.
"We taught them plastic is not good for the environment. If you throw away plastic, it goes to the garbage dump and it doesn't break down," says Julia.
Each Girl Scout took a turn reading a recycling reminder announcement over the school-wide intercom system on Monday mornings. The tough work came when the girls took turns standing by the garbage cans during the cafeteria shifts and monitored whether kids were throwing their garbage away in the right bins.
At the beginning we would stand by garbage cans and tell other kids where to throw their garbage, say Rachel.
"At first a lot of kids didn't understand or care," says Julia. "It was hardest with the kindergarteners."
But the girls persisted and after months of teaching and leading by example, the Girls Scouts' recycling project is now running on auto-pilot.
Kids will listen to other kids, says Susanne Bryer, chair of the environment committee at Rowayton Elementary. I think thats the key to why this worked.
The Girl Scouts' efforts have not gone unnoticed by the school districts central office. Recycling has a potential for saving the district money. The fewer bins of garbage collected the more money saved, says Dan Cook, interim District CFO. A couple of months ago, several members of the administration reviewed Rowaytons program. They spoke with the kids and staff. We are in the early stages of saving the district money through recycling, says Cook. "It's very important to teach them the lifelong lesson of recycling at an early age."
Click here to follow Daily Voice Norwalk and receive free news updates.
