News Detail

Starting Nov. 3: D-E Takes on Recycle Challenge

After several years of taking on the Green Schools Alliance’s (GSA) Green Cup Energy Challenge each winter, D-E will be participating in the Global Green Cup Recycle Challenge for the first time this fall, starting tomorrow, Nov. 3, through Dec. 12. The Challenge is only four weeks of our choosing, so D-E has opted to start tomorrow through Nov. 21, and then the week of Dec. 1-5.

"We are excited to participate in the Green Schools Alliance Recycle Challenge for the first time, after a number of years of doing the Green Cup Energy Challenge,” says Upper School Science teacher and Environmental Club faculty advisor Don McNeil. “Students and staff alike are involved in a campus-wide effort to improve our recycling practices, and just as importantly, to reduce our production of waste (recyclable or not) to begin with.”

Environmental Club Co-Presidents Lauren Aboodi ‘15 and Clement Wong ‘15 created a PowerPoint slideshow explaining the Challenge to all three divisions, which they presented last week. Below are highlights of their presentation:
  • [The Recycle Challenge is] a competition to raise awareness about the importance of ‘recycling right,’ which means to improve recycling compliance rates and decrease the amount of waste in landfills.
  • Schools such as Horace Mann, Fieldston and Montclair Kimberly Academy compete as well.
  • During the four weeks of the competition, recycling bins and garbage bins in each building will be checked and recorded whether or not they have the proper materials in them. If a trash bin contains only trash and no recyclables, then the trash bin would be labeled as a “correct” trash bin. An “incorrect” trash bin would have recyclables in it, while an “incorrect” recycling bin would have trash in it.
  • Why are we participating in the Recycle Challenge?
    • The United States goes through 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour, and only one out of six is recycled. Enough plastic bottles are thrown away each year in the United States to circle the earth four times. As a result of the multitudes of plastics in landfills, toxic chemicals are released, harming the health of our ecosystem.
    • Each person in the United States uses two pine trees worth of paper every year. As a result of removing trees, there are fewer trees to absorb greenhouse gases - thus, fueling global warming.
  • How you can get involved (3Rs):
      1. Reduce – there wouldn’t be as much waste in the first place
        • Use reusable bottles instead of plastic bottles
        • Print/copy only when necessary and use both sides of paper
      2. Reuse – reducing the amount waste we use
        • Use scrap paper instead of new sheets of paper
      3. Recycle – reusing the waste  
        • Put paper and plastic into the appropriate recycling bins so that they can be reused again instead of in a landfill
“Our participation will greatly increase the environmental awareness of the entire school community, and make us a greener school in all that we do,” says Mr. McNeil. “Being environmentally responsible is a priority that we hope will stay with our students long after they move on from D-E."
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Mailing Address: 315 East Palisade Avenue Englewood, NJ 07631
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201-569-9500 Email: d-e@d-e.org
Located in Englewood, New Jersey, Dwight-Englewood is a greater New York City area private school with a rigorous college prep curriculum for boys and girls in preschool through grade 12.