Global warming. Carbon footprint. Gasoline for $3.65 a gallon. Long Island Sound beach-front property...in Essex.
Earth Day 2008 has taken on new significance, or certainly gotten more of our attention this year. While the first Earth Day gave birth to the modern environmental movement in 1970, somewhere between the years of student protests and SUVs, many Americans have become preoccupied with other matters.
And while some still argue over the cause and effect of world climate change, some local students have taken it upon themselves to be environmental activists, seeking change in their own communities.
Paper recycling is old news at most schools, offices, and businesses, but a group of fourth-graders at Old Lyme Center School decided it could do a better job. The cardboard boxes that kids decorated for classroom recycling a couple of years ago were suffering from wear and needed to be bigger.
So the students formed an ad hoc recycling committee. Counseled by Andrea Fenton, a parent and member of District 18 school board, they put together and presented their case to invest in more recycling bins before the school’s student council. The elected board tabled the request for a month.
Ultimately, the council approved funding to the tune of $170. One of the council’s responsibilities is to decide how to spend hard-earned money students raise by working in the school store. The store is open two days a month during lunch, under adult supervision, to sell school supplies such as pens and pencils and items kids could buy for Mother’s Day.
The young citizens wrote a letter to the town’s first selectman, Tim Griswold, requesting to purchase 34 bins. They negotiated a pretty good deal on price, according to Chris Pomroy, Old Lyme Center School principal. The bins were recently delivered to the school with the appropriate pomp and circumstance, including photos with town officials.
“This was an initiative brought forward by the kids,” Pomroy said. “They had the patience and the wherewithal to follow this process through, to involve Town Council and the first selectman. They got to see a formal process for achieving change, which is a big part of it.”
The school expects to see a total increase in paper recycling, Pomroy said, because of efforts by the student committee to spread the word that all kinds of paper, magazines, booklets that don’t have metal spines, catalogues, and envelopes can go into the recycling bins. The students educated some adults, too.
“Personally, I didn’t know that magazines could be recycled, because of the shiny paper,” Pomroy said. “Overall, we expect our school’s efforts to be a savings to the town, plus more environmentally friendly.”
The committee is taking on plastic water bottles, too. Most kids show up at school with disposable water bottles these days, Pomroy said, but these end up in the regular garbage.
The students plan to use a portion of the approved funds to acquire a large bin for the cafeteria. Their message for classmates is to dispose of their plastic containers there, or take the bottles home in their backpacks for recycling. Empty milk cartons also will be recycled, he said.
Members of the student recycling committee are Jack Sandora, 10; Alexis Kolar, 10; Imogene Welles, 9; Katie Kirchgasser, 9; Connor Carberry, 10; Luke Konishesky, 9; and Ethan Fenton, 9, all in the fourth grade.
In East Lyme, Alex Vargo decided to focus his senior proposal on reducing the amount of mercury that gets released into the environment when fluorescent light bulbs get thrown in the trash. The purpose of senior proposals is for students to come up with something they could do to positively change their community.
Those twisty light bulbs, or compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), are all the enviro-rage for home use because they use significantly less energy than incandescent light bulbs, Vargo pointed out. But the bulbs contain vaporous mercury, a naturally occurring element that can cause developmental and other health problems in humans.
“One bulb contains enough mercury to contaminate 7,000 gallons of water,” he said. If the bulbs are thrown in the trash, they are burned and the mercury is released into the atmosphere.
Of more concern, and already closer to being burnt out, are the big fluorescent tubes installed over the years in industrial and residential applications. These contain about twice as much mercury, he said. On a national level, he noted, only 24 percent of fluorescent bulbs are recycled.
“After doing about a week of research, I found out that the East Lyme transfer station had started collecting fluorescent bulbs,” Vargo said. But the problem was few people seemed to know about it. This was confirmed by his telephone survey of 120 people in town.
“About 50 percent of the people I surveyed knew that the bulbs contained mercury,” he said, “but only 14 percent knew to recycle them at the transfer station.”
So he decided to develop advertising and promotional materials to inform residents.
Vargo did his homework, visiting Montville’s public works department, which has recycled the bulbs for a number of years, to see how they advertised the service.
He developed a number of methods to get the word out in East Lyme. This included designing postcards and flyers that could be sent out in the town’s tax envelopes. He also got estimates for printing and postage.
After taking some burnt-out bulbs to the transfer station, he decided the signs there needed clearer language. So he drafted some. He also wrote some copy for the Town of East Lyme’s official Web site. Fluorescent lights don’t appear in the list of household items that the town says should never be thrown in the trash and can be brought to the station, free of charge, for recycling. These include antifreeze, electronic equipment, and Ni-Cad and NiMh batteries.
Vargo also has written the outline for a 15-minute video presentation and found the resources—a willing high school teacher—to help create it. Although there aren’t concrete plans to produce the show yet, town residents shouldn’t be surprised if they turn to Channel 22 and see something about recycling CFLs on local public access television.
Based on his research, Vargo discovered the recommended way to clean up the mess if someone breaks a fluorescent bulb: Leave the room for 15 minutes to allow the mercury gas to dissipate, he said, and then pick up the pieces of the bulb.
Vargo plans to send his proposal to Mike Giannattasio, East Lyme Public Works director, and Meg Parulis, the town planner. The son of Pat and Dennis Vargo of East Lyme is getting ready to attend college next fall and is considering studying math or science.
For information about recycling in East Lyme, go to www.eltownhall.com/recycleInfo.htm#The_Town’s_Transfer_Station.
In Old Lyme, go to www.oldlyme-ct.gov/Pages/OldlymeCT_DPW/landfill.
There are many Web sites dedicated to Earth Day and Earth Week activities. Start at www.earthday.gov.