The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

The Student News Site of Niles West High School

Niles West News

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More Items to be Recycled at West

Niles West is moving closer to achieving LEED EBOM certification, a certification for buildings or building owners awarding them for maximizing operational efficiency while minimizing environmental impacts, and we already started recycling more items.

In addition to paper, cardboard, and aluminum cans and glass, which have been recycled since the beginning of the year,  plastic, wood, light bulbs, batteries, electronic equipment, and cartridges are included in the renewed list and have been recycled for a few weeks now.

“The student body is well aware of the recycling of paper, cardboard, and co-mingle items [like] plastic bottles, glass bottles, and aluminum cans by their use of the recycling containers in the building.  The other items are less popular and apply to only a very few. If everything goes well, the composting of left over food products is planned to begin with the new school year,” says Jerzy Siemiensky, director of Buildings and Grounds.

Siemiensky expects students to come up with different ideas to contibute to this, but recycling is only a small contribution to achieving LEED EBOM status. Whole-building cleaning and maintenance issues, exterior maintenance programs, and systems upgrades play a big role for achieving the certification.

“I would like to reverse the question [of how we think that students can contribute] and ask how does the student body see themselves contributing to this? ” asks Siemiensky.

The person to go to for recycling needs is Michael Detty, the building recycling coordinator, whose extension is 2848.  He is open for suggestions and also to help with any questions or recycling items and pick ups.

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    Ali & KrutiApr 4, 2011 at 3:13 PM

    I think it’s good that West is taking the initiative to be more responsible about the environment. Last year was frustrating, since when I wanted to recycle things like plastic bottles, they had to go into the same recycling bin as paper. However, the success to this is going to depend on students taking the initiative to actually dispose of their trash in the right place.

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