SE T M - Lakes Country Service Cooperative

Hawley isMaroon& Goldand getting Greenerby: Mike Martin, Hawley High School PrincipalIt all started with a call and a question to Doug Kochat LCSC. The question involved finding copy papermade from post-consumer waste products. After someresearch, Doug found a product that was made, in largepart, from oat and wheat straw and used far less bleachin the processing. The district made the switch.From there, the Hawley school district decided itneeded to green up in as many areas as possible. Todrive this effort, the Green Team was formed this pastsummer.At first, it involved a handful of interested staffmembers but soon included a group of studentvolunteers. During the first couple of meetings, a listof brain-stormed ideas emerged and people volunteeredto take each idea and run with it. To date, the followinglist of ideas is underway:• All faculty and staff were given insulated mugs. Nomore Styrofoam cups in the lounge!• Bulletin boards with a green theme were establishedin both buildings.• New plastics recycling bins were donated by thecounty.• A reverse osmosis water dispenser has been orderedfor the students to get them off the plastic bottlekick.• Weekly articles (Green Tip of the Week) appear onthe school’s web site.• All disposable cups and plates, when used, aremade from corn starch.• All malt and slush cups used in the school store andconcession stand are made from corn starch andbiodegrade in 180 days.• A composting class is on the community educationlist for this spring.• Science students have been viewing The EleventhHour and An Inconvenient Truth.• Two-up printing is used by some teachers whenpossible. Front and back printing is always thenorm.• The cross-curricular theme for the year is globalwarming and environmental issues. Teachers thissummer researched ideas for their colleagues to useto create this common theme.• The students are currently organizing a consignmentrummage sale (think Re-use) in which studentswill have a chance to sell their personal items andcollect 90% of the asking price. The other 10% willgo toward funding other green efforts in the school.This list is only the new things that have beenimplemented thus far in the year. The district has beenan active recycler of nearly everything possible forseveral years. It’s an exciting venture and watching thestudents grow greener and greener bodes well for ourplanet’s future.Regardless what Kermit the Frog said, being greenis easy. It’s also highly rewarding and important. Wewould gladly share with other schools what we havedone and will be doing.6