Schools

Brunswick Acres Recycling Project Collects 6,000 Bottles

In just one week, the plan of three Brunswick Acres Elementary School students had entire school "thinking globally and acting locally."

The Enrichment Support teachers of the South Brunswick School District work extensively with students to instill the mindset of think globally and act locally. Armed with that philosophy, the action plan put in place by three Brunswick Acres students recently led to over 6,000 bottles at the school being recycled in just one week.

"This plan basically stems from our Gifted and Talented course where the end product involves kids coming up with a mini-action plan to think globally and act locally," said Enrichment Support teacher Shannon Iaffaldano.  "We wanted them to come up with a plan we could do with limited resources, so the kids formed groups and presented their plans to the principal (Neel Desai) and he chose the most reasonable plan that we could do to get the whole school involved."

The selected plan was presented by students Nishi Gandhi, Maya Epstein, and Jordyn Young.  The girls put together a concept for the recycling of bottles to raise awareness for recycling and to get the whole school involved in the effort.

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"Each class had their own bag to fill over the course of the week and by the end we had bags and bags of bottles," Iaffaldano said.  "The three students helped me count the bottles, for what seemed like the entire day, so the bottles are by our recycling bins right now, before they're brought to the township recycling center."

Iaffaldano said the program run by enrichment teachers helps the students to think outside themselves and to look at small, everyday changes they can make to help improve the planet.

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"We want to instill in the kids that they can make an impact on the environment by doing little things that consistently help," she said.  "We can use the resources that we have at hand to make a difference, and can inspire the whole school to go that route.  It gives them life skills that they can follow through with as adults."

Other plans presented by students that weren't quite as easy to manage included making art out of garbage, cleaning up beaches and creating a garden at Brunswick Acres--great ideas but not quite as manageable Iaffaldano said.

"Any effort for going green should be a natural thing for kids," she said. "We try to instill a more simple way of looking at things for kids and go back to the basics. We want them to think about what are the things that they need and not just the things that they want.  If we get them in the mindset that taking care of the Earth is the norm, then that will help down the road as they grow older."


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