November 18, 2009
St. Leonard students send their paper for new uses
By Martha Elson
melson@courier-journal.com
Sixth-graders at St. Leonard School on Zorn Avenue canvassed the school for recyclable paper recently, bagging up and carting off loads collected in offices, meeting areas and classrooms.
They dumped everything in a "GreenScene Paper Recycling" industrial-sized metal bin that was recently placed outside the school, and sixth-grade teacher Kathy Wallace collected their plastic bags to reuse.
Her class will take on the task every few weeks, and neighbors of the school may also bring paper to the bin - which helps the school earn money.
"We're going to try to help the environment as much as we can," said student Joey Estaphane, 11. "It helps God's creation live."
"It makes me feel good," said Elizabeth Wiggins, 11, as she helped Natalie Dahlem, 12, retrieve paper from the school office.
St. Leonard is among about 25 schools in Louisville that have signed up so far to participate in the free "GreenScene" program, which is operated by Right-Way Recycling, a Lexington, Ky., company that's a little more than a year old.
Right-Way has a warehouse on Commerce Road off Seventh Street Road where loaded bins are taken. St. Leonard was working toward its first pickup last week.
A bin holds two to three tons of paper, and St. Leonard and other participants receive $10 for each ton that is recycled. The paper is loaded into semitrailers and taken to AbitibiBowater paper mills in Alabama, which turns it into newsprint. The program accepts newspapers, magazines, catalogs, fax paper, envelopes, mail, copy paper and colored paper.
The bins are supposed to be in a "visible and accessible location," Right-Way owner Eric Vandervert said. The St. Leonard newsletter also has gone paperless and is now published on the school Web site, and the school maintenance supervisor, Greg Butler, collects aluminum cans.
The school also held a recycling event Oct. 24 to collect computers and electronic equipment to be recycled by Commonwealth Computer Recycling, 954 E. Kentucky St.
The "GreenScene" bin is a big help to Wallace, the teacher, who started the paper recycling effort when she came to the school six years ago. She used to load all the paper into her car and take it to the city recycling site behind the firehouse at Franck and Frankfort avenues.
"It used to completely fill her car," said school secretary Kim James, who also has led recycling initiatives.
Student Griffin Ballard, 12, said he's glad to help so "there's less waste in the world."
Reporter Martha Elson can be reached at (502) 582-7061. Photos by Pam Spaulding, The Courier-Journal
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