Sustainability Club takes us into the future

Being sustainable means caring about the planet to maintain natural resources’  for future generations. Sophomore Alexa Rodriguez, a member of the club, explained, “Being sustainable means to actively work and try and do things that benefit the earth rather than just throwing things away.” 

Being sustainable is beneficial because it reduces the waste going into the ocean or the atmosphere. By using the human will power to change, many future lives on the planet will be safe and protected. The Sustainability Club has been working hard to make a change in our community. This club is run by Mr. Wassmuth, who also teaches AP Environmental Science and Earth Science at this school. 

Mr. Wassmuth came up with this club as he looked at the challenges faced by many people on this planet and considered that being sustainable is what is needed. Mr. Wassmuth also added, “the largest waste generators in the city are believed to be New York City ublic schools,” which  means that it’s up to schools now to move forward and protect the environment. 

The Sustainability Club came up with many ways of proper waste management that can improve our school, as well as our community. For example, they organize community beach clean-ups on the weekends where the students are free to join, this way they clean the public areas and students earn community service hours, as well. They have placed three different trash bins for different waste in each classroom, hallways and the cafeteria.

The club has spent some time designing different colors and lids for different types of bins. For example, black trash cans in classrooms and hallways are for normal trash, blue for recycling and green for paper products. There are also brown bins in the hallways and cafeteria for food waste. This results in far fewer items thrown away in the wrong places and once you’ve got used to where the bins are and which colors are used for which items.

 “Our school is also being sustainable because the cafeteria consists of different bins to sort out the waste,” said sophomore Nova Brent. The club has also been planning to start a garden, which is a very much needed space for urban areas. Gardens often lead to an appreciation for the environment. “We want to leave the earth in a way that the future generations can also enjoy it, as we can,” Mr. Wassmuth stated as his goal for the club.