What is going on with the recycling? At the start of the school year, the recycling dumpster at FHS was removed unexpectedly. As a school that has recycled for seven years as their part of helping the environment every day, the missing dumpster has left Freedom students, staff and administration confused on where it went.
In the past weeks, Freedom has not been able to get back or find out what has happened to the dumpster outside of the school. No one knew where the bin went, and even the people who ran the bin had no clue. They were confused on why it was gone and, from what they knew, no one requested for the removal of the bin. The Director of Buildings and Grounds, Gary Mortimer, came to school one day over the summer and discovered that someone took the bin.
This hasn’t been the first time FHS experienced issues with the recycling program. George Miklas, a special education teacher, explained that, last year, a rumor spread that the school wouldn’t recycle after a company went bankrupt.
“Last year, a rumor circulated early in the year that the company that owns the dumpster went out of business and we would possibly not have recycling last year, but that turned out to be resolved and we did have recycling for the school year,” Miklas said.
Abitibi, the company that managed the Paper Retriever recycling bins, was bought out by Royal Oak Recycling last year.
Mortimer has always had a problem with the recycling company retrieving the recycled material. As a result, he would receive complaints about paper flying into neighboring yards.
Finally, after getting the contact information from Royal Oak, Mr. Mortimer contacted the company about the missing recycling bin. Royal Oak told him that the band boosters’ account was never closed. Since the high school band’s account was still active, they placed it back in the previous spot.
The whole ordeal was a misunderstanding because they were not supposed to take away the recycling bin for Freedom. They were supposed to take away the bin in Freeport.
On Sept. 14, a new recycling bin was placed behind the high school, allowing the school to go back to a normal routine of recycling starting Sept. 21. Because Miklas, the sponsor, is planning to retire this year, people have begun to wonder who will take up running the recycling program.
According to Miklas and William Deal, FHS principal, the high school hopes that the person who is hired after Miklas’ resignation inherit the sponsorship.
Recycling allows us to give back to the world we live in as well as receive money to benefit the school. To benefit and fund FHS’s clubs, extracurricular activities and the school itself. We really do not realize how much recycling has settled into our everyday routine until it’s gone.