Blair barely passes school recycling inspection

Blair's recycling program received a below-average grade, a one letter grade decline from last year, from a surprise inspection by Montgomery County's Division of Solid Waste Services on Dec. 16, 2004.

This school year, Blair's grade dropped from last year's C to an overall rating of a D+. According to the inspection report, Blair scored lowest in categories such as contamination of recycling bins and school-wide recycling education. Blair received high marks, however, for "participation," "sufficient container capacity" and "location of the recycling bins," according to the report.

Business Manager Laurie Checco attributes the grade drop to the lack of oversight of Blair's recycling program and to the departure of Blair's former business manager, Anne Alban, who dealt closely with the program. Blair therefore did not follow the required recycling plan that it submitted to MCPS at the beginning of this school year, according to Checco. However, if Blair continues to actively recycle, even if it does not follow the plan and the same problems persist, the school will not face consequences, said Alan Pultyniewicz, the Montgomery County Business Recycling Program Manager.

Silver Chips conducted an unofficial inspection to see the degree of contamination and school-wide attitude towards recycling. Of 16 classroom paper recycling bins on Jan. 12, 11 bins were contaminated with trash. The majority of uncontaminated paper bins were in classrooms where teachers strictly enforced recycling or personally separated the trash from the recyclables, according to classroom teachers. In a similar investigation of ten hallway can-and-bottle recycling bins, nine bins were contaminated. Of the 26 paper and bottle recycling bins, 12 had labels on them. Typically, the bins with labeling had significantly less contamination than the bins without labels.

Since last year, Student for Global Responsibility (SGR) member Allison Elvove, a senior, has been working on a proposal to involve the new mandatory Connections class for incoming freshman with education and collection of recycling. After several meetings and various discussions and revisions of the proposal, Connections teachers have agreed to teaching students this semester as part of a project called "Character Counts," according to Connections planner and Spanish teacher Cindy Villavicencio. Blair's freshman Connections program as a whole, however, will not oversee the collection of recycling due to the difficulty of logistics in incorporating it into the Connections curriculum. Instead, Connections and English teacher Carole Tomayko and her sixth period Connections class have voluntarily taken on the responsibility of collection for the remaining school year.

December's inspection came as the recycling program was just being re-established after a year and a half of inactivity. Checco, Building Services Manager Quentin Middleton and representatives from SGR and the SGA met to discuss the current and future state of the recycling program on Dec. 14, 2004, two days before the surprise inspection. "[The inspector] caught us too early before we had a chance to implement all the plans that were discussed at the recycling meeting [on Dec. 14]," Checco said.

At the meeting, SGR sponsor and history teacher George Vlasits called for additional public recycling awareness programs as a means to decrease contamination of recycling bins. Other possible solutions to spread awareness included more labeling of recycling bins, posters to hang near bins and a public call, through e-mail and Info Flow, for both students and staff to get involved in the recycling program.

Teachers say students frustrate the process by using recycling bins as trash cans and that even labeling does not always help. "Five times a week, I have to tell kids to take their trash out of the recycling bin even when there's a label on it," said Jacquelyn Shropshire, a Business and Computer Science teacher. "They just can't read."

Even so, some members of SGR are going around the building along with Tomayko's Connections class to label recycling bins around Blair with extra labels provided by the county. "It's a slow process," said Elvove, "but we're having fun, and we hope that by this small action, perhaps people will see the signs and think a little before they throw paper and bottles away."

Checco also believes that Blair's recycling program is continuing to progress. A re-evaluation is expected in February.

More information
•All schools in Montgomery County are required to submit a recycling plan in the beginning of the year. If a school fails to submit a recycling plan and violates MCPS regulation that requires schools to recycle, then it will be fined an initial fee of $100. For subsequent violations, the school will be charged $150 each day until it starts recycling.

•However, if a school does submit a recycling plan, it can still be fined if it violates MCPS regulation.

•According to Checco, "participation" is defined as the student body recycling, not collecting.

•Another suggestion during the recycling meeting was that Blair should buy specially designed lids for the paper recycling bins to prevent people putting other trash into them. However, Middleton abandoned the idea because the lids cost $14-17 a piece.

Comments from C.W. Jones, the inspector
•"The recycling program at this location must be re-started and re-energized by a true green team to inspire school-wide support."

•"Enlist students to make announcements over the PA system about the recycling program and tips for success."