Recycling to Protect the Earth at James Wilson Young Middle

James Wilson Young Middle School’s Ecology Club has been learning various ways to reduce waste, protect the Earth and decrease their carbon footprint. To aid in this effort, this winter the club attended a workshop lecture with Town of Islip recycling educator Danielle Wynn and coordinated a recycling drive for used electronics.

During the workshop, Ms. Wynn discussed which materials are eligible for recycling, several projects that can be done with recycled materials and showed the students how to make paper. During an upcoming meeting, the students will be putting the papermaking lessons Ms. Wynn shared into action.

As part of the month-long drive, the club collected numerous used cell phones, cameras, iPods and other electronics. All donations were sent to a California company that either refurbishes the items or recycles the materials they are made of. This reduces the amount of materials in the waste stream, protects the groundwater from toxic chemicals that are in the phones, and reduces energy and pollution from mining of metals needed in the construction of phones.