Sedona Recycles News Archive

When most people think of recycling, they probably think about separating their paper from their plastic, glass bottles from cans, and dropping it off at the recycling center. You probably aren’t very likely to think about Sedona’s schools.

But a huge part of Sedona Recycles’ mission is dedicated to public education, and our biggest focus is on local schools. In 2009 alone, our staff gave presentations and tours to more than 1,000 students in the Verde Valley.

You might wonder why a recycling center would devote so much time to speaking with students, but for us the reason is as clear as day: good habits start at a young age. As I wrote in my first column back in November, I am a product of recycling efforts in local schools. As a fifth grader at Big Park Community School, I listened to the sixth grade class when they talked about the benefits of recycling. Our school recycling program led me to convince my parents to start recycling at home, and a ripple effect began.

From that time onward, I took my recycling habit with me everywhere I went. I improved the recycling program at my high school (and helped empty the recycling bins on campus for four years), convinced extended family and friends to recycle, made recycling a priority for my housemates in college, and encouraged recycling at each of my jobs. I even give my husband a hard time when a piece of paper ends up in the garbage bin. Learning good habits early on makes for good habits later in life. And if you’re like me, those habits might even lead to a meaningful career. 

It’s important for kids and adults alike to learn the value of the impact one person can have. Recycling helps us teach this important lesson. For example, recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a television for three hours. These energy savings are equivalent to six ounces of gasoline. We wouldn’t waste gasoline by pouring it out on the ground, so why waste energy by burying a can when we could recycle it. And that’s just one can. Think of all the cans you use in a month! That’s a lot of wasted energy that could be saved with the simple effort of recycling.

Now it’s one thing to visit schools and teach kids about recycling, but it’s imperative that they be given the opportunity to do it in the first place. When they see how easy it is to recycle at school, they overcome the #1 reason that students tell me they and their parents don’t recycle: laziness. Recycling programs in schools teach students how easy it is to recycle and make it second nature.

Sedona Recycles has donated approximately 1,800 recycling bins to local schools and businesses in the last decade. We estimate that more than 75% of schools in Sedona and the Verde Valley now have recycling programs, in large part due to our donations of both recycling bins and educational programs.

The most successful of these programs are endorsed by the students themselves. Many area schools have one class that collects the recycling on campus, and in some cases, provides the education as well. This class receives a presentation from our staff, and then teaches their fellow students about the importance of recycling and how to do it. This level of involvement instills a sustained commitment to recycling and imparts a positive peer-pressure on other students. In my case, the fact that the recycling talk came from the sixth graders made a big difference.

While in-class recycling programs are highly successful, there is one program at Sedona schools that could use an infusion of public support, the Recycle Challenge program. Recycle Challenge is designed to raise money for local schools through recycling of aluminum cans. Each school in Sedona is outfitted with a large blue dumpster donated by the Anheuser-Busch Recycling Corporation – one of America’s largest aluminum recyclers. These dumpsters are available for public use and benefit local schools. Sedona Recycles collects the aluminum in Recycle Challenge bins, weighs the cans inside, and then pays the school for the cans we recycle. The more cans collected, the more money the schools receive.

If the public were more active in this program, taking their cans to local schools, we could donate thousands of dollars to Sedona schools. So if you live near Sedona Red Rock High School, Big Park Community School, Sedona Charter School, or West Sedona School, consider taking your cans to the Recycle Challenge bin and help support our local schools. And if you have a student at one of these schools or at the private Verde Valley School, then you have no excuse not to drop your cans off when you drop your children off. You can raise money for schools and teach the value of recycling at the same time.

At Sedona Recycles, we believe that sharing resources and supporting the parts that make up the sum of our local community are vital for a healthy Sedona. Programs that benefit the public, nonprofits, schools, and businesses are good for everyone and help create a tighter knit, connected, and productive community.

So remember that every time you visit the recycling center or one of our Recycle Challenge bins, you are not only making a difference by saving resources and protecting our environment, you’re helping to support local schools, donate recycling bins, and provide valuable educational programs for students of all ages. Now that’s a smart choice.