“Ballin,” yells South Kingstown High School senior Brandon Sweet as he drains a crumpled up math test into the trash can from across the room.

  “That can be recycled!” shouts SKHS senior Alisha Daniels.

   “It doesn’t matter—the janitors throw it all in the same garbage bin anyway,” retorts Sweet.

  At SKHS, going green has become a new fad. Everyday students are seen carrying around their aluminum water bottles, helping Mr. O’Malley in the garden and of course recycling.

  Students for Justice president Emily Cotter has worked extremely hard over her time at SKHS to place recycling bins in every classroom at the school.

  During Cotter’s sophomore year she found, “stacks and stacks of bins in the first floor storage area were not being used.”

  Cotter and the other members of Students for Justice decided to gather up the recycling bins and placed them in every classroom.

  Now, a typical class room will contain two recycling bins: one for paper materials and one for plastic materials. Additionally, the cafeteria contains two 55 gallon plastic bottle recycling bins, located on opposite sides in the center of the cafeteria.

  On most days, however, a number of recycling bins appear to be overfilling with bottles and paper, just waiting to be sent off to the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Center to be recycled.

  “Janitors won’t dispose of the recyclables because it is not in their contract,” said Cotter.

  The custodians tell another story.

   “If the bins are sorted correctly I don’t have an issue recycling,” said SKHS custodian Laurie Ricks. “However, I can’t speak for others.”

  According to SKHS Head Custodian Carol Leahy, “Recycling has been an issue” at the high school.

“Some custodians’ feel they should not be responsible for it because it is an added task for them to do,” Leahy said.

  Many students, however, seem unaware of the time and effort it takes to properly recycle the so called “recycled items” in the recycling bins.

  Students often place food and other unwanted items into the recycling bins. Therefore, in order for the custodians to properly dispose of the recycled items, they are forced to sort through each individual bin to ensure that all of the items can be recycled.

  “We have paper recycling bins containing food, so we end up trashing the bins all together,” said Leahy.

  SKHS principal Mr. McCarthy said that the custodians are only expected to recycle materials that are properly sorted.

  “I don’t think it’s their responsibility if a bin has a little bit of everything—they should just throw it in the trash,”  McCarthy said.

  Nonetheless, Cotter contends the recycling bins are constantly overflowing with bottles, paper and other materials. Some members of Students for Justice have taken their own initiative to dispose of the recycling bins themselves.

  “During my sophomore year we would go on Fridays and bring the recycling bins outside of the cafeteria where the dumpsters are,” said Cotter.

  Cotter said that she and the rest of Students for Justice have not been able to keep up with the recycling process solely by themselves.

   “It is tough to have the recycling program with only five people,” Cotter said. “It is almost impossible.”

  Leahy said that the custodians at SKHS are on a tight schedule and do not have the time to sort through every recycling bin. Therefore, she said, recycling at SKHS cannot be a reality unless students begin to properly dispose of recyclable and un-recyclable materials.

  “We are happy to do our part, but it’s hard,” Leahy said.

  Despite the extra work, Mr. McCarthy said that “he has received a commitment from the custodians that they will recycle.”

  If SKHS is ever going to have an effective recycling program, McCarthy added, students need to do their part and place materials in their proper bins

  Despite its failures at SKHS, other regional schools have effective recycling programs.

  Pioneer Valley Regional High School, Northfield Massachusetts, which is north-west of Boston has had an effective recycling program for 3-4 years.

  “We compost paper and food waste and recycle bottles and cans,” said PVRHS principal Bill Wehrli.

  Wehrli believes PVRHS’s  recycling program has grown to be successful because “there are three sets of bins in 25 different locations throughout the school.”

  Wehrli knows that students will throw away paper, bottles or trash in the bin that is to their convenience. Therefore, Wehrli strategically places three bins in every location, allowing to students to dispose of materials correctly, without forcing them to go out of their way.

  PVRHS’s recycling program has proved to be successful because they have reduced their waste by 80 percent. Plus, Wherli said the school has “saved a fair amount of money,”  and he thinks the recycling program is “tremendous.”

  As seen at PVRHS, a public high school can have an effective recycling program. But, cooperation between students and faculty is essential.

  “If we want to have a recycling program at SKHS, students and teachers need to be involved,” said Cotter.