At the Roots and Shoots meeting Feb. 24, the group discussed ways to create a video that informs students and staff about the recycling process and how to improve it, according to junior and member Thor Anderson.

“The project we are working on with the administration (is) to help the recycling process go more smoothly in the school and make recycling more used,” Anderson said. “We are planning on making a video just talking about some of the issues that we’re facing as a district and what needs to be done.” 

According to junior and member Keely Berntsen, the club wants to encourage students to recycle and compost by placing more bins around the school. 

“The school is going to be putting in some new recycling and compost bins, so we want to get the students to use them,” Berntsen said.

Junior and president of Roots and Shoots Zoe Frank said all waste is currently being thrown in the same place, making it difficult to properly recycle. However, she wants to change this so everything is thrown in the right spot.

“Right now the recyclables and trash are all being disposed of in the same place because students aren’t sorting them, so it’s not worth custodians time to sort them out,” Frank said. “So we’re hoping to close that rift and have people recycling appropriately so that the custodians can dispose of things correctly.”

Frank said Roots and Shoots is working with Park’s facilities manager to place bins around the school to make it more convenient to correctly dispose of their waste.

“We’re working with the facilities manager to get bins and make sure they’re clearly labeled and accessible so that people actually know where to dispose their waste,” Frank said.

Anderson said not everyone understands where waste can be disposed, and when that confusion occurs, everything has to be thrown directly into the trash.

“We have good recycling facilities in the school, but there’s a lot of misconceptions about what can and can’t be recycled and composted,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of things that go into the wrong bin and when that happens, the recycling becomes not recyclable and it just has to be thrown away.”

According to Berntsen, the ultimate goal of this project is to decrease the amount of trash created, and instead convince people to try recycling and composting. 

“(We want to) try to lower the amount of trash produced by the school and get people to be more conscientious about recycling and composting,” Berntsen said.

The next Roots and Shoots meeting will take place 3:30 p.m. March 2 at the Nest.