According to Greta Thunberg, a 16 year old climate change activist, “ We aren’t destroying the biosphere because we are selfish. We are doing it because we are simply unaware.” Before 2018, recycling had not always been a popular issue. In Fact about 55% of the world’s population knew little, to nothing, about the proper way to recycle. However, the issue of recycling has become extremely popular due to the extinction of animals, mass destruction of ecosystems, drastic reduction in biodiversity, global warming and a lot more. A lot of activists are rising up to help people understand what climate change is about, and how even the littlest things like recycling, can make a huge difference. An example of one of those activists is Greta Thunberg, who even though she has Asperger’s syndrome, is not letting anything stop her from speaking out to governments, and trying to do whatever she can to stop climate change.

Here, at FDR, we got motivated by the likes of Greta Thunberg, and decided to become involved and try our best to ensure everyone at FDR understands recycling and the proper way to do it. That is why we created the Green Squad. The Green Squad is a community of students in conjunction with some teachers, who are in charge of spreading awareness and understanding about recycling at FDR. The Green Squad has done quite a number of things at FDR to help more students know how to recycle all of their garbage.

Due to a number of surveys carried out by the Green Squad, it was found out that about 90% of kids here at FDR do not have an idea of how to recycle. Most students do not even understand the significance and use of each trash bin in the cafeteria. This prompted the Green Squad to go into specific environment-related science classes to spread awareness about the use of each bin in the cafeteria. Presentations were carried out in these science classes, where it was explained that hard plastics, metals and glass objects go into the blue bin, which represents recyclable things. Soft plastics, tissues and paper go into the grey bin which represents non recyclable items (basically trash). Food scraps, the trays, and forks given out in the cafeteria go into the brown, or compost bin, because they are made out of items and are compostable.

In order to test the knowledge of students on recycling after the presentations, The Green Squad created a Zero Waste Week Challenge. This was a challenge where if a student was seen recycling everything on his or her tray properly, the student got a ticket and had the chance to win whatever the student wanted from the SO store. The student who won the challenge was crowned “Composter of the Month” and the person got featured in the school newspaper, The New Dealer, and was placed on the bulletin board in the student cafeteria.

The 30  Green Squad students put in so much effort to spread awareness about recycling. According to Robert Brault,” the littlest things done turn out to be the big things.” These students gave up their lunch hours just to help make a change at FDR and make a contribution to save the Earth. Due to the efforts of the Green Squad, more students at FDR have a better understanding of recycling. Of the 90% who were unaware of recycling, 40% now have a better understanding and a basic knowledge of recycling. Our goal is Zero Waste at FDR!