As of Wednesday, National Honor Society, the club that picks up recycling, will only collect paper. 

“Cardboard can still be recycled, but it will have to be taken to the large green dumpster by the instructor or custodian in your area,” principal Tim Hamblin said in an email to the staff.

Previously, recycling was taken to the large green recycling dumpster in the loading dock. From there, Waste Connections, the company that manages the school’s waste, takes care of it.

“For whatever reason – and this is the part I don’t know – (Waste Connections) changed the program, came and removed the dumpster, and only left… those brown home-size trash cans with the blue lids,” Hamblin said.

In addition, Waste Connections reduced how often they pick up recycling.

“I thought we could maybe stretch the time and make the space in the brown and blue lids if we limited it just to paper,” Hamblin said, “because a plastic bottle’s maybe going to take up more space in that container than flat pieces of paper.”

Another factor that went into this decision was damage done on school property because of an overflow of recycling.

“It was last week I believe,” Hamblin said. “Kids that collect the recycled material, they use the large carts the custodians have…. All of the little new… dumpsters were full. So one of the big custodial carts filled with recyclable materials had been left on the dock back there. Winds blew that into a vehicle that was parked and caused some damage to the vehicle.”

“I’m not blaming any NHS kids for that damage. It just happened. I get it. What were they supposed to do if the new bins were filled?”

The change to paper only recycling is not meant to be permanent.

“Well, we’ll see how things go,” Hamblin said. “I do have some folks inquiring why the big dumpster was taken away. Maybe we could get that back, but obviously that’s a company I don’t control.”