6th Grade Environmentalists Take Action

My sixth grade students had a wonderful experience with environmental civic action this year. As part of the national Earth Force program, 10 students sponsored an Electronics Recycling Event for their home community of HB Woodlawn on March 24. Their motto was "We'll bring it to you," meaning they went to over 70 HB Woodlawn households with their parents, student and teacher volunteers, to pick up old, unwanted electronics. It was a huge success!

Staples vice president Pat Girard, who sponsors Earth Force in our area, was so impressed, he not only gave the students the award at the Earth Force Youth Conference, but also is going to initiate an electronics recycling day at the local Staples stores in the Metro area and has asked these students to help him run it some time this Spring.

The impetus for this project was protecting our local HB Watershed because in the fall, while on a trip to a local stream, students found a variety of electronic equipment, such as hard drives and cell phones, directly in the stream water. Discovering that Arlington did not have curb side pick up for electronics recycling, they sponsored their own event.

The breakdown -- 433 items collected

• 263 computer components (monitors were the most recycled item)
• 113 TV, video, and audio items
• 15 cell phones
• 32 communication devices (telephones, fax machines, and an answering machine)
• 35 miscellaneous household appliances (Easy Bake oven, a vacuum cleaner, and a curling iron, rechargeable batteries)

The students also sent out a survey to a randomly chosen number of HB Woodlawn households to find out how interested they would be in curb-side recycling of electronic equipment. It turns out that 85% of the respondents favored having quarterly curb side electronic pick ups at their homes.

The sixth graders also presented their project, before and after, to the County Board (see photo) - and received great support. Paul Ferguson championed out effort and we thank him tremendously. The entire County Board praised the students' effort and County government staff also helped ensure the project's success, offering tips and support in collecting the items.

Sixth Grade Electronics Recycling Group
Ibby Han, Grace Evans, Elliot Grace, Zack Shoultz, Julia Voight, Myranda Miller, Millie Smith, Catie Mitchell, Anna Toth, Jonathon Wabeke

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Kathy Molina, Katherine_Molina@apsva.us
6th Grade Science Teacher
HB Woodlawn School (Arlington)