After a year of inactivity, the environmental club is back in action with strong members and a new plan.
North Platte High does not recycle anything and is no longer contracted with ABC Recycling.
Even though the club would like to see paper recycling back in the building again, the task of paper recycling is a larger physical demand that would require the assistance of contracted services with ABC Recycling, and therefore would be a district-level decision.
So at the first environmental club meeting, it was quickly brought up as an environmental concern.
Many students come into the high school with energy drinks in aluminum cans.
Recycling those cans is the easiest to manage compared to recycling plastics and paper.
Lauren McKay Bowers and Maleighya Harmon are members of the environmental club.
At their first meeting, sponsor Tiffany Negley asked the members if they had anything in mind to start for their first project.
Bowers was the one who came up with the can recycling.
“There are lots of cans around the school that are getting thrown away because a lot of us have energy drinks or pop that come in cans that are just getting thrown out,” Bowers said.
The environmental club thought about doing paper recycling again but the school has to pay ABC recycling a lot of money because of transportation, and the different bins but with cans the club doesn’t have to pay anything
All the boxes they used were boxes from the printers around the school and the club is going to donate all of the cans to Can for Critters.
The club will pick up cans every other Wednesday from around 29 different teachers that requested to have a box in their room.
The members meet once a week on Thursday morning at 7:35 in Negley’s room.
As a club, their goal is to just get as many people involved.
It doesn’t even have to be students, the teachers play a big part in it too because they are reminding their students to recycle and some are even helping the club by collecting boxes or talking to other teachers about it.
To start this project the first thing the club did was send out an email to see if any teachers wanted to have a box in their room to help recycle cans.
Then they started collecting boxes from around the school and making signs to put on the boxes.
When they got enough teachers to respond they started putting the boxes together they lined the boxes and then taped a sign to it.
After they got the boxes put together they started to hand them out.
The environmental club chose cans as their first project because they knew it would be an easier project to start and it could also help the club begin more recycling projects later on and keep the school a cleaner place.
There were about 30 teachers in all that took a box for recycling cans.
Some of the janitors at the school left them plastic trash bags to put in the boxes so there wasn’t anything spilling in them.
The club came back up this year when at the begging of this year.
Negley noticed that the Environmental Club was no longer a listed club with NPHS.
The previous club sponsor resigned and moved to be closer to family.
Negley practiced conservation in her personal life in multiple areas so not having a club anymore at the school really tugged on her heart: She just had to do something about it.
After visiting with Laurie Streeter in the activities office and fellow teachers, she made an application to reactivate the club.
It is the good feeling they get when they give back to the community and help their environment at the same time, Negley said.
The cans are donated to the Cans for Critters program which supports FUR Animal Rescue (formally Fur the Love of Pets.)
Cans for Critters has been a vital part of their rescue program for over 10 years.
The donated aluminum is recycled and the funds accumulated help to pay for their never ending vet bills.
FUR Animal Rescue has four dog kennels in North Platte and one in Brady.
Cans for Critters have drop spots in five locations, four in town and one in Brady.
“This is a great way for the community to support the less fortunate animals and recycle at the same time,” Negley said.
The club is small due to getting approved later in the year, but she knows they will grow.
“I have loved revamping the club and it feels good,” Negley said.
