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Schools Briefs
School Directory
| Good
or the earth, and some cash |
Newberg students are recycling everything from cell phones to used printer
cartridges to earn money, save the planet |
By Christie Scotty, Newberg Graphic
Reporter
Email Christie at cscotty@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 Paper, plastic, metal or glass?
If only all recycling were that simple. Try sorting broken cell phones and used printer
cartridges into the proper recycling bin.
Several Newberg schools are now doing just that, cooperating with various
companies in an earth-friendly revenue-producing move: recycling used fax, printer and
copier ink cartridges for cash.
A box in Mountain View Middle School’s main office now holds about 10
cartridges and 10 cell phones. Counselor Erin Dobias thinks those numbers will pick up
once students get in the habit of bringing them in.
“People are so used to throwing them away,” she said.
“It’s just changing the mind-set.”
Dobias is one of the organizers for MVMS’s annual Japanese exchange
program with Yanase Junior High in Santo, Japan.
With district-wide budget cuts now in effect, chaperones will have to raise
their own funds this year for the first time, Dobias said. Money will have to be found for
paying substitute teachers to take their place and gifts to bring to the partner school.
That could come to $4,000 or $5,000, according to Dobias, who is hoping the
new recycling program might make a dent in that cost.
MVMS is working with Cartridges for Kids, a Colorado-based organization that
pays schools a few dollars for most cartridges, depending on the type. Cartridges for Kids
then sells the used items to remanufacturers who in turn refabricate and sell the used
cartridges.
Most discarded cell phones are worth between $2 and $10 for schools, while
some will return as much as $45.
Although recycling cell phones is a new step, other schools in the district
recycle used ink cartridges.
Ellen Finley, green schools coordinator at Edwards Elementary, is in her
second year leading the program at that school.
“We have several students who bring them in from home, church or their
folks’ business,” Finley said.
Using the program as an educational tool, Finley arranges for the students to
call the purchasing company or shipping companies themselves. Most of the students’
questions involve why certain brands or models of cartridges aren’t accepted.
“The kids have to make the phone call to begin with and go through the
steps we as adults go through — waiting their turn, being put on hold ...,”
Finley said.
Working through a company called National Principals’ Resource Center,
students brought in more than $200 last year she said. That money goes to fund visiting
artists in the school’s book room. |
|
From Jan. 8,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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