My Senior Ventures project involves implementing a sustainable recycling program at Darlington. I selected this project because currently there is not an efficient way to recycle at our school. This project is extremely important because if we do not start taking better care of our planet, there will be no planet left. During my junior year, my roommate and I collected all the plastic bottles we used, and I would take them with me when I went home so we would have some way to recycle them.
At this point, I believe that recycling is the bare minimum we can do for our planet. We have harmed and continue to harm the environment everyday through various methods but we can help reduce the amount by recycling. My sister is a big advocate for saving the environment, and she has inspired me to start taking steps toward environmental protection at Darlington. I believe my project will be more important now because we are throwing away a very large amount of recyclable goods as a result of COVID-19.
My goal is to provide recycling bins throughout the school, educate faculty and students about the importance of recycling, form a Green Team club in the Upper and Middle Schools, and work with faculty mentors to make sure the recycling program I have established remains an important part of Darlington after I graduate.
My first step was to provide recycling receptacles throughout the school. We placed four in Thatcher, and we have several in the Upper School dining hall, the Cove, the growl, and other areas. I have made announcements about placing plastic bottles and aluminum cans in the bins, and we have had a positive response. I plan on having a class competition as an incentive to keep recycling throughout the year.
The Green Team was originally formed by Randy Smith. I am now leading this club for the Upper School, and Rebekah Kinney is the faculty sponsor. I have also worked with Bebe Zazzaro, the student council, and the Service Committee in Thatcher Hall to form a Green Team there for interested students. These teams will encourage their classmates to recycle and collect the recyclables and place them in a trailer we have for collecting bottles and cans.
My Darlington mentors for this project are Mr. Kinney and Mr. Smith. My community mentor is Ben McElrath (‘02, LD’15) of Marglen Industries. I recently contacted Mr. McElrath and he provided information about his company.
“At Marglen, we take recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and make new products out of it," he said. "The most common form of PET is plastic beverage bottles. We wash, sort, grind and extrude the recycled bottles into a FDA approved pellet that can be used to make new beverage bottles. We also make polyester staple fiber out of the recycled bottles, which mainly goes into the floorcovering markets.”
He also provided these resources to learn more about plastic recycling:
https://plasticsrecycling.org/
I am looking forward to completing this project and implementing a sustainable recycling program that can continue for years to come.
The Senior Ventures leadership program is a year-long senior project built on a framework of leadership, innovation, and community engagement. The topic and the project design are chosen by an individual student or a pair of students, and the journey is guided by Darlington faculty as well as mentors in the community. Most projects fall into one of the following categories: Investigation, Performance, Entrepreneurship, and Outreach. Candidates are selected according to proposal quality, feasibility, and commitment.
