Recycle. Reuse. Renew.

The three Rs are becoming familiar to students in Warsaw schools as students get more opportunities to recycle.

Recycling in Warsaw Community Schools first began in 1992. Recently, the Kosciusko County Solid Waste Management District purchased approximately 500 paper recycling bins, one for every classroom in the Warsaw School district and for school offices, to help the corporation better meet their recycling needs.

Greg Schroeder, Warsaw Schools' director of buildings and grounds, said the bins are a fresh emphasis for the corporation's recycling program.

According to Solid Waste District director Marsha Eikenberry, Ameri-Waste will pick up the paper to be recycled as part of their contract with the school corporation. The bins are orange with black lettering to match the corporation's colors. The Warsaw Schools maintenance department delivered the bins last week.

Four students at Washington Elementary said recycling is very important to the community.

"Basically," said sixth-grader Ryan Hann, "it helps the planet. It's better to not pollute it."

Mehry Sabet, fourth grade, said, "You can make something not very good into something good."

"We recycle just about everything we can get into those bins at Marsh," said sixth-grader Jacob Tusing about how much his family recycles.

Ariel Howard, fourth grade, said that, at home, "we really can't recycle cardboard because we use it for other stuff."

Hann and Tusing said they learned about recycling mostly in fifth grade.

Do enough area residents recycle? The Washington students were skeptical.

"Maybe," said Howard. "Some people really don't recycle. My neighbor has paper out in their garbage."

Hann said, "We just use Marsh bags when we recycle. We use those and then recycle them."

Tusing said if people don't recycle, "Dumps will get way too full."

"We'll not have as much land to live on," said Hann.

Sabet said one way to get more people to recycle is "if more people talk about it, more people can get the word out."

Hann suggested a recycling fair. Tusing said recycling bins should be placed out in the country and by the woods so people will stop littering in the fields and in the woods.

Sabet suggested, "If we do say things to people, we can say things like 'every day's suppose to be Earth Day.'"

"It only takes five minutes of time to recycle," Hann said.

As for the new recycling bins in the classrooms, Tusing said, "It's a good idea because in the classroom we have a lot more recycling needs than at home."

Hann said the bright colors help the recycling bins stand out. [[In-content Ad]]