What’s white, blue and rectangular too? It’s a recycling bin. And if you haven’t noticed, you don’t see them much at East Meck anymore.

In elementary school, most of us had long lessons about protecting our planet and the importance of recycling. Lessons illustrated by the beaming blue bin that sat in each classroom corner. We’ve forgotten about these lessons and recycling as a whole in favor of convenience, and the consequences are dire.

Recycling is the process of turning certain waste- cardboard, glass, etc – into reusable materials. It allows us to keep waste out of landfills and create new items from that waste. But recently, CMS has dumped its recycling program, leaving East Neck bin-less. Despite requests for a comment, CMS hasn’t responded on the reasoning behind this decision. There isn’t much consistency when it comes to recycling in CMS schools. According to our sources at Myers Park, more than half of the classrooms contain recycling bins. This demonstrates a stark contrast to East Meck’s lack of recycling bins.

When we don’t recycle, trash ends up in landfills. These landfills pollute the air and water within the area, destroying the habitats of wildlife and making the environment generally unpleasant. Landfills, which are often located in low-income areas, produce pollutants like methane and carbon dioxide as well as toxic leachate or liquid filtered through garbage. While there are standards that landfills are held to, some of them violate these standards, risking the health of locals for the sake of convenience. That’s one of many reasons why it’s so important to promote recycling. Another would be the fact that recycling beautifies campuses. When students have accessible recycling bins in classrooms, they’re held accountable for the condition of their campus.

The lack of recycling bins at East Meck has an insidious effect. Without the introduction of recycling bins to young people, future generations won’t have the opportunity to build the eco-friendly habit they will inevitably need.

Daniel Burbules, commonly known as Mr. Burbs, is a chemistry and biology teacher here at East. Burbules disagrees with CMS’ decision to cancel their recycling program, as it prevents students from getting set to the process of recycling.

“I think it just needs to become normal, and that can start in the classroom. When we see every classroom having these bins, and we’re recycling appropriately, it just becomes normal,” Burbules said.

The more we recycle and watch others do the same, the more accustomed we become to the process. So while CMS taking away recycling bins at East Meck might seem like a small issue, it has a large impact on our future habits.

Some might argue that recycling has its downsides; it exhausts resources, and there are lots of facilities where recyclables are dumped alongside trash, despite the presence of the recycling bin. However, these problems could be addressed much more efficiently if recycling became a common part of our lives.

It’s true that a single person recycling might not do much. Lots of the garbage and pollution that plagues our planet is produced by the same large companies that try to sell us an environmentally conscious facade. They produce and promote recyclable packaging while deforesting acres of land for profit. They preach about eco-friendly mindsets while viewing the earth and its resources as tools they can exploit. If recycling was a practice that people grew accustomed to in schools, and we taught each other about the influence that large companies and even governments held on our earth’s wellbeing, young people would grow up to be environmental conscious adults.

It’s obvious that CMS needs to bring back our recycling bins. They beautify campuses, keep trash out of landfills, and introduce the importance of our environment to future generations.