For the fourth year in a row, Saint Joseph School won the Operation Greenlid recycling contest, an effort that involves staff, students, their families, St. Joseph Parish and community members.
The private Catholic School in downtown Martinsburg brought 798 totes worth of recycling to the Grapevine Road recycling center from late August through mid-May, according to Lynne Lashley, the recycling/litter control/creek cleanup program manager for the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority.
Operation Greenlid was established in 2015 by the solid waste authority and Apple Valley Waste to encourage voluntary student participation in solid waste management, roadside litter reduction and alternatives to landfilling. Apple Valley Waste provides 96-gallon recycling totes to the schools, which must transport what they gather to the Grapevine Road site for counting.
Mark Barney, vice chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority and principal of Martinsburg South Middle School, presented eight of the students involved in SJS’ recycling program with their $600 award during the May 22 meeting of the Berkeley County Commission. The only other school in Berkeley County that participated in the contest was South Middle, which was awarded $400 for second place. Barney said a dedicated group of students collected recyclable materials from the classrooms at the school on Bulldog Boulevard and staged them for pickup throughout the school year by parent volunteers and staff members.
Saint Joseph School does not actually use the totes because of its high volume of recyclables, opting instead to gather commingled plastic, paper, cardboard, steel and aluminum in bags and boxes, which are emptied at the center. A total of 26 students in grades six through eight – usually five or six per week – collected the items once a week in all three of the buildings on the school’s campus. St. Joseph Parish and a few members of the community also contributed their recyclable products to the school. Members of 10 school families alternated driving the recyclables weekly for tallying.
