HANNIBAL, NY – When students in Ashleigh Mix’s fifth-grade classroom at Dennis M. Kenney Middle School learned about ecosystems and recycling, they decided to take on an environmental-friendly project that quickly gained traction throughout the building.
Each morning, students receive breakfast in their classrooms that are placed in plastic bags. Rather than throwing them away, the fifth-grade classes recruited their fourth- and sixth-grade peers to collect these bags each day. At the end of the week, hundreds of breakfast bags are then recycled.
“The students have really embraced this project,” Mix said. “They were super receptive and have taken ownership over it. It’s a great way for them to take what they have learned in science class and apply it to daily life.”
There’s a hand painted sign next to the recycling bin at the Bristol Hill landfill that says “PLASTIC BAGS ARE TRASH”. Price Chopper and Lowes recycles them and so do 4th and 6th graders.