THANKS FOR NOT RECYCLING

In a dark place, among the myriads of plastic bags and potato peelings is where my school's trash sits. It fills the landfill to the brim; tightening its deadly grip on the environment. That's not all. Our day-to-day habits in school are just as dangerous to the environment as kryptonite is to Superman.

Is the use of Styrofoam trays in place of real trays really environmentally friendly? Think again. Those trays take over a century to decompose, but in the meantime, all four million of them sit in landfills all across America. In fact, the trays take up so much space in the landfills, that new landfills are needed. If this trend continues, the world may not even have enough space for landfills. However, school lunches aren't the only things that need "greenification".

When you walk into each of your classrooms, do you ever notice that the TV's are turned on even though the teachers never use them? Considering there is already a clock in most classrooms, it's just a waste of electricity to leave the TV on so students and teachers can check the time. Each TV uses 110 watts in an hour, and we have over a hundred of them, so the total wattage will be over 11,000 watt hours. If that hefty figure doesn't make your head spin, then try to think about how high the school's electricity bill is!

The recycling bins in the classrooms are starving from the lack of recycling, and the garbage cans are feasting on everything recyclable. This lack of recycling is a problem that needs to be addressed. If we don't recycle, then lumber companies will keep cutting trees down to make paper. The effects of this are noticeable today in places such as Alaska where parts of mountains are dead and barren. This is another example of how the little things we do each day can have such an impact on the world.

So, the next time you sit at the lunch table and devour what's in your tray or sit outside and drink a latte on a Saturday afternoon, think about how many habitats were destroyed for you to enjoy those amenities.