Due to the lack of time and resources present in the building, the recycling program at Perry was diminished heading into the 2018-2019 school year. However, the rustling of paper and clanking of recycling bins has returned, all thanks to Jim Doninger’s fifth period Earth Science class.
“Our school not recycling is not sustainable,” Doninger says. “When I found out we no longer had it, I just thought, ‘Why can’t someone do it?’”
Wanting some input on the use of recycling bins in the school, Doninger sent an email asking which teachers would like a recycling bin for their classroom.
Bins from Ray’s Recycling Bins were funded by the township.
“We got a lot of good feedback from the teachers,” he says.
Students involved in the program will take a small amount of class time each Thursday to empty and replace the boxes in each classroom.
Doninger also teaches AP Environmental Science, a curriculum built around humans’ detrimental effects on earth and sustainability.
Doninger’s fifth period class consists of students ranging from sophomores to seniors.
“I have fifth period for much longer and they were all very excited to do it,” Doninger says.
Senior Paige Preddy, a student in class, stresses how important recycling is for the school.
“We use a lot of paper,” she says. “We really just want to help the school to be better.”

The lack of recycling bins didn’t only upset the teachers, but the students as well.
“It was weird without the recycling bins around. They had just always been there,” sophomore Nathan Haver says.
Haver is a current Earth Science student.
“I always try to recycle when I can, but now I’m excited to help the school,” he says.
Climate change is a direct consequence of humans engaging in practices harmful to the earth, such as neglecting to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Recently, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that the earth has roughly 12 years until detrimental effects from climate change begin to deteriorate the environment in an irreparable way.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, recycling is one of the easiest and most basic ways to make even the smallest impact.
“We can’t afford to keep not recycling,” Doninger says.
“It may not happen in my lifetime, but in high school students’ lives, you will see devastating effects on the environment if we continue at this rate,” Doninger says.
While Perry Meridian is back to taking the small steps to ensure sustainability throughout the building, there is much more that students can do outside of the classroom to make the earth a better place.
Reducing harmful waste is another easy way to avoid putting toxins back into the environment. Reusing materials goes hand in hand with reducing and recycling.
Even the smallest changes, such as switching from plastic water bottles to reusable water bottles, taking bags from home to the grocery store, and recycling used paper, can make a difference.
Decreasing the amount of waste put into the environment prevents toxins from being released into the atmosphere and landfills.
“Recycling is good, but there are more things we need to be doing to protect our environment,” Doninger adds.