Students at East Knox Elementary School have helped launch a recycling program with the help of Matt Baugher, manager of the Knox County Recycling and Litter Prevention program.
"A group of fifth- and sixth-graders each came up with a recycling program," Baugher told the Mount Vernon News.
Three sixth-graders, Hayden Garman, John Tucker and Breidyn Burch, developed a program to recycle candy wrappers after Halloween, he said. Students brought their wrappers from home and placed them in recycling containers.
"The wrappers go to a company that has a way of washing and condensing the wrappers to make pet waste bags," Baugher said. "The waste bags end up in dog parks and humane societies."
Four fifth-grade students, Ellie Clark, Paizley Barner, Madison Rambo and Reem Ezzarouali, started a program to recycle regular paper items at the school.
"Basically, the students take turns. They collect the paper and dump it into a big container," Baugher said. "It's student-led. They came up with the idea."
Baugher talked to more than 200 students at East Knox Elementary about the benefits of recycling to the environment.
"I was really impressed with what they were able to bring to the table," he said. "It went so well that I will be going in there during the first week of May to talk to kindergarten through third grade."
The students provided comments to Baugher about their participation in the program.
"The point to doing this is to reuse everyday [items] and keep things out of the landfill," Burch said.
"We saw trash cans overflowing in the cafeteria, and we wanted to help reduce waste," said Clark.
"My goal is to take it over to the junior-senior high school next year," Garman said.
