Keeping Our School Green
There are millions of schools across the world, the majority of which run differently and have administrations that have different focal points. Examples of these include sports, academics, music programs, construction of the school, and possibly even nutritional concepts. One topic that is not looked into enough is keeping schools environmentally friendly. Here are a few ideas we could use to keep our school green!
November 9, 2022
- Keep plants inside halls and classrooms: Classrooms often get very crowded and stuffy, and plants help purify the air around them. Studies have also shown that plants can help people feel more relaxed and relieve anxiety.
- Use rain barrels around the outside of the building: Since we have a greenhouse, this is a great idea! Using rainwater helps reduce the amount of water that goes to the sewers. The fresh water is also really good for the plants.
- Start a compost: Starting a compost would be another great way to enrich our greenhouse. Composting improves plant health along with improving soil health as well. Composting also helps reduce waste that goes to landfills.
- Start bringing reusable water bottles: When you use a metal or reusable plastic bottle, you’re helping to reduce your carbon footprint as well as reduce the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills, oceans, rivers, etc.
- Use plastics or recyclables in art projects: Brainstorm ways we could use certain materials in art projects such as bottle caps, food packaging, cans, plastic bottles, etc.
- Stop using plastic food packaging: Even though this idea could be costly and it might take some time, it would be worth it in the long run. Plastic packaging is used for fruit cups, bottles of drinks, wrappers for fruits and vegetables, wrapping for silverware, and much more. The amount of plastic would be reduced by quite a bit our school would start using more cardboard packing along with compostable and recycled materials.
- Utilize natural light: If you have windows in the classroom, try to minimize the amount of electricity we use by using sunlight. Even if it’s not enough to light up the whole room, having only a few lights or a lamp on is a lot better than all of the lights being on at once.
- Introduce green cleaning products to janitorial staff: Cleaning supplies, paints, chemical fertilizers, etc., can be very harmful to students as well as staff & administration. Replace your normal cleaning supplies with environmentally friendly ones such as disinfectant wipes, cleaning vinegar, or refillable cleaners.
- Start an environmental club: A green club would be a great way for our MHS students with a passion for saving the environment to take action. Students could start a recycling club, organize fundraisers, participate in trash cleanups, grow/sell fruits and vegetables, and so much more.
- Cut down on paper usage: On average, schools use around 2,000 sheets of paper a day. This means that in a full school year, around 300,000 pieces of paper are used. A way to reduce these numbers would be by trying to make the paper that is used front and back. We could also introduce recycled paper in the classroom.
- Plant more trees around campus: Students and staff spend a lot of time at school and our school is also a big part of the community. Trees help assist in temperature regulation as well as also improving air quality by releasing oxygen and taking airborne pollution out of the atmosphere. Planting trees would also make our campus more attractive with extra greenery.