Members of the ecology club split into two groups and walked around the building after school on Monday, Nov. 28 in an effort to divide and conquer the large amount of recycling generated each week in BHS classrooms. 

Club members grabbed recycling boxes from open classrooms, and when they encountered a locked door, a custodian let them in.

Most of the recycling was paper, but ecology club members sorted out cans and bottles from the paper, which have to be recycled in a separate location. 

They dumped paper from the classroom boxes into one of the club’s bigger bins, which rested on a wooden cart that they transported around the school and then wheeled through the atrium and out the front door to the dumpster in the parking lot. 

One club member rode the cart down the walkway while another pushed.

They smiled and laughed as they attempted to toss the bin over the high dumpster wall, and sighed with relief as the bin soared in the air and flipped, dumping its paper into the dumpster to be picked up by the recycling contractor, River Valley Paper Company.

As the weather gets colder, this will be less fun, as winter cold will cut through coats, and it will be hard to push the carts over snow and ice. Cars in the parking lot can also present obstacles.

The ecology club made some effort to recycle last year, but this is the first year since COVID that the club has regularly collected recycling.

The Beachwood Schools Foundation has granted the high school club $500 towards increasing recycling at the high school.

“We are planning to give all the teachers new bins,” club president Kyle Bennett said.

The club is doing this so teachers can store a week’s worth of recyclables in the new bins and the club will continue to collect after school on Mondays.

The club has around 15-20 members, and while some go out to gather recycling, others stay in the room and plan future projects for the club.

Bennett has a strong connection with nature, which is why he is passionate about the club.

“I just like nature, and I want to kind of help it, so that’s what it means to me,” he said.

Bennet couldn’t attend the meeting on the 28th, so other senior leaders Drew Keilin and Aayush Bhriguvansh led the meeting. 

The meeting was loud with socializing.

Since there was apparently no project to plan for the future that day, everyone got to recycle, which made them happy.  

Bugenske made an announcement that the new recycling bins were not yet available due to a shipping delay.

“Some of them have arrived already, but I don’t know when we’ll have them all,” she later explained in an email. “The club will paint room numbers and put recycling stickers on them and then they will be distributed.”

Most teachers currently use cardboard boxes to hold their recycling, which sometimes accidentally get thrown out. The club uses old plastic bins to transport the paper recycling to the dumpster in the parking lot. Both classroom bins and transport bins will be replaced by new plastic ones.

The new bins are much needed as the bins the club’s transport bins are dated and don’t look like they will last much longer. 

On the 28th, one of the groups worked its way from the science and math hall to the English hall. The science and math hall had more recycling than the English hall.  

The other group worked on the language hallway to the office. 

After collecting all the recycling, the two groups met at the front door and took our recycled trash to the dumpster. 

After returning from the dumpster, they made their way back to the room where they discussed the day’s recycling.

Building sub Katherine Falkenburg brings snacks to every meeting, and that day she had brownies and apple cider waiting.