A soft February breeze swept through my hair as I sat on a picnic blanket at a park across the street from Berkeley High School. I was listening to the condensed version of Annie Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff” at Earth Team’s February meeting. About ten other high school students were sitting with me, all increasing their knowledge on recycling.
The park was swarming with other people because it was such a warm day, so there was plenty to be distracted by. But I was too busy learning to take notice of anything besides the realm of knowledge being presented before me. And the more I listened, the more I realized there is to learn that I don’t yet know. For example, did you know that in the past thirty years, 30% of the Earth’s natural resource space has been used up? Or that United States industries release over four billion pounds of toxic pollution per year? I sure didn’t, which is one of the reasons I like these meetings—they teach me things I didn’t know that I didn’t know!
Another reason I like Earth Team is because it gives me the chance to experiment with hands-on data. After learning about recycling and trash, we were given the opportunity to conduct a waste audit. (Yes, that is sorting through trash. But gloves, aprons, and cleaned trash made it a sanitary process.)
We found that many things found in the trash could actually be recycled. Soda cans, paper, and water bottles are all able to be placed in the recycling bin and reprocessed, but things like plastic bags, chip wrappers, and yogurt containers are unfortunate objects that must go into the trash pile. (Goals for the future!) We calculated the amounts of all the trash and talked about areas to focus on in the future: think about what you’re about to put in the trash before you just drop it in.
Each meeting brings the world one step closer to a solution to global warming, and it makes me feel so powerful to know that every little bit helps. If you think that recycling your Vitamin Water bottle doesn’t matter because it’s too small to make a difference, you’re wrong. Give everybody a chance to do the same, and we as a society can turn this problem around.