86 Girls Recycle

Hey everyone!
Sad to say but this is my last and final blog entry. I am so very excited to report though that the recycling in my house has been amazing! I came back from spring break and the amount of stuff ready to be recycled was large! Some of the girls even brought some stuff from home since their parents do not recycle! As for the competition that ended last night at midnight the 2nd floor (juniors) won by a ton compared to the sophmores floor. We decided as a pledge class that we will have a pizza party and ice cream sunday party! My presentation last night at chapter went well and I got alot of feedback! Also we took a vote and our house has decided to keep the recycling program going! Relating this all back to class I realized how much one person can do to start a great program, as well as what each person involved in the program can do.I learned how important the environment is to people and I learned alot about why each person chooses or does not choose to recycle. Many responses were that their families had never forced them, or even introduced it to them, as well as many people never had the oppoortunity until now. Surprisingly many people said that they were not educated enough on the effects of recycling and now that they are, they will be recycling forever! I am glad to say that my project, in my eyes atleast, was a success! Thanks for all your feedback!

86 Girls Recycle

Hello all!
First off, I just wanted to say how excited I am about some of the new projects that are being started this week! Especially after everything we have talked about lately in class, I can’t wait to see how everything turns out!
Here is my update! I last told you about the contest with the 2 floors for the girls and the recycling bins. It is going much better then I had thought that it would! (atleast for half the house) Last night at our chapter meeting I gave the girls more facts on recycling used from a webapage( link below) as well as told them about how Apple recycles, and their holeistic view on recycling and the plan to continue to recycle all of their parts. (I will place the link below). After class today I walked in to the bathrooms and looked into the trash cans, I was very surprised at what I had seen. The main items that I saw were a couple of styrofoam cups in each can, as well as a few scraps of paper. Of coarse I wasn’t very happy at first but then I realize how little was actually being thrown away. I went ahead and looked in the closet and to my surprise the bins were over flowing. On the second floor (juniors and a few seniors) there was a small- medium sized trash bag filled with water bottles and aluminum cans set next to the over flowing bin. The third floor (sophmores) weren’t as positive. Their trash can was filled with paper plates, paper cups, water bottles, pop cans, and even cans from things such as spaghetti O’s. I took the time to ask some of the sopmores why they felt the recycling wasn’t as good on their floor and the response they gave me kind of upset me. They told me that they feel that their pledge class doesn’t care as much as ours does. So before I came and wrote this blog, I printed out the facts (on recycled paper of coarse) that I had given them last night in chapter and posted it on each persons door and on the inside of the bathroom stalls Just so they are reminded of what they are doing little by little to our environment because they dont seem to care enough. I then went and looked in their bin and it was pretty good, but definately not as good as the second floor. When I return from Spring break, I will talk one last time at my chapter meeting. I will be able to present my project to them, as well as we will be able to take a vote on whether we feel that the program should stay in our house. So this one was a little bitter sweet. Great for the amount recycled on the second floor but a bummer to see how the third floor viewed the program. Hopefully for my last blog I will be able to report only good things! Until then….
http://www.apple.com/environment/recycling/
http://www.cityofinglewood.org/pdfs/pw/Recycling_Facts.pdf

86 Girls Recycle

Hey everyone!
I am very excited to be writing this post! I know it is only my second update but things in the house have been very busy! For starters I was able to speak at our chapter meeting. I reminded the girls of the bins in the hall closets on each floor and highly encouraged them to use them. I then opened the room for discussion. There was not much discussion but I was able to get some feedback that I wanted. The girls asked if we could have our 3 trash cans back in each bathroom, I still felt like that was a bit much, so we have placed one medium sized can back in each one. I asked more girls in my house how they felt about our new recycle program. One girl said “I think this is one of the best things that we have done since I moved in this year.” Another girl said she was working on recycling but it was still hard to always remember. So in order to help the girls remember, I set a big sign on the mirrors of the bathrooms that said “Can that be recycled?” This I felt was a good reminder and then the girls would not be throwing away the items that can be recycled. On last Monday, I looked into the recycle bin and counted the amount of paper, and aluminum and plastic in each one. On the second floor alone, there were only 4 aluminum cans, 1 plastic water bottle and 15 sheets of paper. After Chapter that week on Wednesday after talking to the girls, we made it a contest and the floor with the most stuff recycled would win a dinner from our Exec office. On Friday morning before I left town the second floor had 25 aluminum cans, 60 sheets of paper and 15 water bottles. The third floor was below them with 15 aluminum cans, 40 sheets of paper and only 5 plastic water bottles. This week I am planning on giving the results at chapter, reading new facts about recycling, and asking the girls if they think this program is really worth it. So far the response seems to be getting better and better. I cant wait to tell you what I count this week on Thursday morning! I will make my next blog then! Until then, I will just encourage recycling in my house!

86 Girls Recycle

Here is my 2nd blog and my 1st update of our program. The first week of the recycling was a little tricky. It was even a little tricky for me and I set up the program. We took away all the trash cans in all the bathrooms, the only trash cans left are the ones in the kitchen. We did not warn the girls, we just took them. Randomly you would hear people go into the bathrooms to throw away a water bottle, or a cup or paper etc. and the response would be “What happened to our trash cans?”. I would even catch myself taking things to the bathroom to throw out and then remembering to recycle if possible. I then noticed that people would just leave their trash around the sinks for the next morning when the maid would come and bring in a trash can and clean our bathrooms. (They are too lazy to take their trash to the trash can down in the kitchen.) Surprisingly the trash was really bad. On Wednesday of last we during our regular chapter meeting, we brought the subject of the missing trash cans up. We started by stating facts about recycling. We then proceeded to tell the girls about the boxes in each closet across from the bathrooms on each floor labeled for recycling and that we are trying to recycle instead of throw away our trash. You could hear the girls begin to whisper about it. I told the girls that they are able to bring me their old cell phones, and old cell phone batteries as well. I also told the girls that the sink is not a trash can, and that putting their trash around the sink for the maid to pick up everyday was not going to be tolerated. If they were not going to participate and recycle with us, then they would have to buy trash cans for their room and take out their own trash. After chapter that night, surprisingly I had many girls come up to me and tell me how they think it was a good idea. As of this weekend on Sunday, the trash can in the kitchen is getting more use, and not as much the recycling bins. There is some paper and water bottles and things like that in the recycling bins, but not as much as I had hoped. I am going to read more facts about recycling at chapter this Wednesday, and post facts in the bathroom stalls to read. Hopefully this will help with the recycling and by the end of the week I can give you better results. I am really excited about this project and I know many of the other girls in my house are as well. I just really hope it catches on to the others. I can’t wait to tell you at the end of this week how I feel it is all going after Wednesday night.

86 Girls Recycle

Hey Everyone!
Ok so the Title of my project is 86 Girls Recycle. It will be a what one person can do project. My project is about my house and the recycling program that we are starting in it. Each floor will have a plastic box with little drawers in it. Each drawer will be labeled with different products that can be recycled such as paper plastic bottles. In order to help the girls to recycle, we will be taking all the trash cans out of the main bathrooms to help the girls to remember to recycle. This will help because if it can be recycled then there will be a box for it, and then the girls won’t have to walk out in the cold to the dumpster everytime they want to get rid of something that was in their room. Also we will put up fact sheets about recycling in the bathroom stalls, as well as give a fact about recycling once a week at chapter meetings. I will monitor the plastic bins to see how much they are actually getting used, I will look in the big trash can in the kitchen to see what is being thrown away down there, and I will also get feedback from girls on what they think of the new system and if they feel it is effective and why. Basically that sums up my project!