500,000: That is how many trees are cut down to produce all of the Sunday newspapers in the USA. While Wenatchee High School certainly doesn’t consume that quantity of paper, our school is certainly not “green.” Schools produce massive amounts of paper waste. Every day tests are given and worksheets are handed out and collected. Where does all of this paper go?

There is a recycling program at WHS, but chances are you haven’t noticed it. The bins are often placed in obscure locations throughout classrooms, and the fact that the assignment you just got back belongs some place other than the garbage can is rarely mentioned.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s great that our school has a recycling program. I just think WHS could do a better job recycling our waste paper. We use so much of it and so much is thrown away when it could be reused. This is not an issue of students not wanting to recycle paper, it is an issue of education and ease of use. If a student has an old homework assignment in their hand and they want to get rid of it, they will head for the trash can — not because they don’t want to recycle it, but because it’s easier to throw it in the trash than to search around for the recycling bin.

I feel that a much more realistic and successful tactic to reduce paper waste would be to retrofit our school with more standard and recognizable recycling cans instead of unmarked tubs. These cans would be placed next to each garbage can. This would force people to think twice about where the paper in their hand is going.

If the chance to recycle was presented in a more recognizable and obvious way, more paper would end up in the local recycling facilities and made into paper again, instead of taking up space in a distant land fill.