Paper Project Initiative

I began this project by setting out boxes in the classrooms to collect paper. When the boxes would fill, I moved them to my designated work station to sort out the disarrayed paper into stacks to better document them and to remove all other objects that could not be recycled with the paper. Pure trash that I could not recycle I had to throw away, but the plastic bottle I found was recycled. The unused dividers and printer, colored, notebook and graph paper I found was reused during as the new school year started. The large stack of manila dividers I found that a retiring teacher threw out were used in researching colleges and in my family. I kept the paper clips thrown out and the red pen and pennies I found discarded in the boxes, as well as the boxes themselves, for my own personal use. After all the other objects were taken care of, I took pictures of my finds to document what we collected so that everyone could see how much was thrown out in such a short time to realize their impact. After taking the pictures, I transported the boxes full of paper to our closest recycling drop off station. Before putting the paper in the appropriate recycling area, I weighed the paper collected, which came out to 300lbs. After the project was concluded for that specific time frame I continued to encourage everyone to lessen their use of paper as much as possible and to reuse or give away what could be reused to someone who would employ that item for a purpose instead of just letting it end up in a landfill somewhere.