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Local schools start recycling programs

HANCOCK – In 2015, Gordon G. Barkell elementary School students began a recycling program for paper and cardboard, and now the Hancock Public Schools have started a similar program at the middle school and high school.

Jen Davis, Hancock Middle School seventh and eighth grade science and Community and Self teacher, said this week students began making posters announcing the start of the recycling program, and taping signs indicating what materials can be recycled on the sides of plastic collection bins.

Davis said the recycling project is one of three students are doing for the Community and Self program. They chose three projects they were interested in. Those projects are mentoring younger students, visiting elderly people and overseeing the recycling project.

“They decided,” Davis said of the projects with which the students are involved.

The schools’ science teachers are guiding the recycling project, Davis said.

There are 35 collection bins, which Davis said will be placed in each classroom of the two school buildings, as well as other locations, such as copy rooms and offices.

The items which can be placed in the bins are the same as those Waste Management accepts from residents, Davis said. She expects most of what will be collected in the schools will be paper and cardboard, as well as plastic drink bottles. Other items, such as books and junk mail can also go into the bins.

The recycling project will involve some mildly cognitively-impaired students, said special education teacher Emily Lancour.

“At least one special ed student will help collect bins from the rooms,” she said.

The special education student will be mentored by a high school student, Lancour said.

Maren Rouleau, Copper Country Intermediate School District special education teacher working at Hancock Central High School, said the special education students involvement is meant to give them skills they can use for possible employment.

“It’s like a learning process for the students,” she said.

Davis said when the bins are filled, the items collected are placed into a dumpster for Waste Management to collect.

Davis said she worked in Lanse Middle School before coming to Hancock, and she led a recycling effort there which was successful.

“We recycled 500 pounds last school year,” she said.

Already, Davis said she has noticed students telling other students not to throw certain items away, but to recycle them, and she hopes that concept spreads through the schools.

“We want to get this established as a culture,” she said.

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