Manitou Springs High School (MSHS) has been recycling throughout the school for the last few years, having buckets placed in each classroom, and even some around the halls and in the lunchroom. Each had a piece of paper taped on it, indicating specifically which things to, and not to, recycle up until this 2019-20 school year when recycling was taken away. The group that usually collected recycling, WORRRMS, was also shut down completely. Students weren’t aware of this until janitors started collecting all the recycling buckets. Students thought that it would be the last time they saw them. This decision seemed to have happened in an instant and nobody was really informed that recycling was being done for and why. 

But the reality is, the way MSHS’s recycling was being recycled was causing a high level of contamination. 90 percent of recycling was being thrown in the trash. The whole process was super unorganized, recycling wasn’t being collected properly or often enough. Admin had to make the decision to stop recycling to prevent contamination, something that many frowned upon. This decision didn’t seem like something they wanted to do either, especially in today’s day and age where many environmental issues and being brought into the conversation. 

After implementing specific steps and policies, MSHS will incorporate recycling again, but the WORRRMS club will remain disbanded. Instead, Environmental Club is offered to students who are interested in helping and protecting the environment, including working on the recycling situation in the school. When recycling does come back, the process of collecting, and distributing properly will be each advisory’s responsibility. More specifically, every Thursday each advisory will receive a reminder to have a student volunteer dispose of the recycling from that classroom. Matter of fact, nothing will be the same as the last time recycling was collected. The recycling bins that will be put in the commons are going to be a little different this time around. There will be a sorting container to try and keep metals, plastic and paper all separated. This is all in hopes to keep everything organized and orderly. Another attempt to making things not so difficult is by working with the lunch ladies to try to use more sustainable supplies for lunch. This can make properly disposing of them a little bit easier. Environmental club is working hard and doing their best to have this process flow as smoothly, and correctly, as possible so that the student body is educated and can contribute by disposing of their recycling the right way.