Girl scouts find a way to make recycling possible at school

The members of Girl Scout Troop 81403 were tired of hearing that recycling at their school wasn't possible.

They also needed a service project to earn the Sign of the World, something that would improve their community.

Most of the girls are fifth-graders at Monocacy Elementary School in Frederick . They noticed their cafeteria was throwing away a lot of plastic bottles, cans and foil juice bags.

"They were disturbed by the fact that the school came up with a way to recycle paper and cardboard, but there was nothing for plastic or cans," said Diane Travis, the troop leader. Her daughter is in the troop.

"My girls took it upon themselves to do (a recycling project) in school," Travis said. "They did it entirely by themselves. They wrote up a plan, sent a letter to the principal and met with the custodial staff. The school tweaked it a little."

This was in April.

The girls provided recycling bins for the cafeteria and the teachers' lounge. Since then, each day after school, one of the nine girls in the troop goes to the loading dock with a parent to retrieve the recyclables. "They take turns," Travis said.

Jessica Puckett is the only girl in the troop who does not attend Monocacy. She attends Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter School.

Her school collects juice bags. The juice bags can be recycled, but students in Jessica's school sew them together into reusable bags that hold groceries or other items.

The girls collect a little bit of money for the cans they gather.

Response at Monocacy Elementary was much more than the troop imagined.

"They were overwhelmed," Travis said.

Besides Jessica, the girls doing the project are Elizabeth Berg, Serena Bhasin, Courtney Dumm, Jacqueline Ford, Cacie Gallagher, Johanna Mettler, Alexa Nestor and Renee Travis.

The girls decorated recycling bins with recycling symbols and "Save Our Planet" illustrations. Each day, the items collected fill a large kitchen-sized trash bag with plastic containers such as bottles and yogurt containers. Another large bag is filled with juice wrappers. A smaller bag is filled with cans.

"I was amazed at what was going in the landfill," Travis said. "The problem is getting it out of the school. It's not like the kids aren't willing to do it."

The recycling project has made it easier for students to dump their leftover food in one trash bag and stack their Styrofoam trays in another. The school is now able to use fewer trash bags, Travis said.

Heather Quill, Monocacy Elementary's school support teacher, said in an e-mail that the Girl Scout recycling program has been an amazing success.

She praised the girls' organization. "They came with all of their ideas laid out," Quill wrote. "When asked how they would manage the collection of the recycling, Renee Travis pulled out a calendar and they discussed all of their previous commitments (band, chorus, after-school activities) and designated pairs of girls to be in charge each day."

The girls wrote morning announcements and promoted recycling every day. The girls have never had to be reminded to collect the recyclables, and they have never missed a collection time, Quill said. After lunch, the girls collect the recyclables and put them on the school's loading dock. Every couple of days, one of the students gathers recyclables from the teachers' lounge, and these also go to the loading dock.

Parents not picking up their daughter from school come by later in the evening to retrieve the recyclables.

The girls then separate the items. The plastic items either go out with their family recycling, or go to one of the community recycling bins. The cans are turned in for cash, and the juice bags are rinsed and ready to be made into bags.

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