For the third year in a row, Saint Joseph School won the Operation Greenlid recycling contest with the help of nearly 20 middle-schoolers and eight families whose children attend the school.
Operation Greenlid was established in 2015 by the Berkeley County WV Recycling Litter 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 recycling center for counting.
Saint Joseph School brought more than 600 totes worth of recycling to the center throughout the school year, according to Mark Barney, vice chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority and principal of Martinsburg South Middle. He presented 17 students from the school with their $500 award during the May 23 meeting of the Berkeley County Commission.
The only other school in Berkeley County that participated in the contest was South Middle, which collected more than 300 totes full of recycling. Five or six students consistently collected recycling at South Middle under the guidance of teacher Michelle Barnhart, Barney said before presenting Barnhart and two students with their $500 winnings.
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 19 students in grades seven and eight – usually five or six per week – collected the items once a week in all three of the buildings on the school’s campus. Parents signed up to drive the recyclables weekly for tallying.
Thank you, South Middle, for joining us in this important effort!
