We are eighth graders from Farmington, a small rural town in Missouri. Waste is a huge problem all over the world. If we do not do anything about this soon our resources will eventually disappear. The idea that we could help out our community inspired us to choose this project.

At the beginning of this project our school was only recycling a few aluminum cans. The nearest facility to take recyclables is in a city 10 miles away. We felt that we needed to discover more about the recycling process and how we could recycle in our community.

Because schools create about 70% of their solid waste in the form of paper, we knew that recycling paper should be a priority. We sponsored a paper drive at school, talked to all the classrooms about it, presented a skit, and collected our school's paper waste for one week.

We met with Farmington City Administrator Greg Beavers to discuss the possibility of developing a recycling drop-off facility within the city. We have been researching recycling since September and have participated in a state-wide poster contest sponsored by the MO Recycling Association, visited the Recycling Expo in St. Louis, toured the SFCEC recycling transfer station and landfill in Desloge, and surveyed twenty-two cities in MO about their recycling practices in which we received thirteen back. We are writing a grant with our city to create a recycling drop-off facility by developing the marketing strategy. The city will apply for the grant in October 2008.These trips and activities helped us learn a lot about recycling.

We now have a recycling container at our school and all the classrooms are recycling these items. Our 4th grade class conducted a landfill experiment, recycled paper from paper, and made "glass." Our 2nd grade class recycled boxes, milk cartons and paper to build a miniature community.

We will be renegotiating our solid waste pickup in June 2008 to once a week instead of our current twice a week. This will reduce our trash fee by more than half. We are currently recycling 2.5 tons every 2-3 weeks with our recycling container. Because its cost is $50 every pickup, we have reduced our total costs by about $100 a month. This means that we are saving about $1,200 a year, plus keeping recyclable items out of landfills. We are very excited to have made this discovery!

To learn about us, visit the Our Team page. To learn about our project background for CyberFair visit the Narrative page. To learn more about recycling visit the Resources and Our Research pages. The Interviews page will provide information from higher sources such as Elizabeth McAdam, a recycling specialist.

Read our Press Releases and view the PowerPoint show about our project.

 

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