The Hemlock Huskies school color-blue continues to grow greener as the district works to implement two Department of Environmental Quality grants received last spring. The first grant in the amount of $6,375 is to educate and promote recycling and the second $18,405 to provide the infrastructure to for the recycling program. This brings the total to $24,780 for the program.
April Mullen, Speech and Language Therapist, stated, “I am very happy to see Hemlock going GREEN! Recycling is such an important practice to teach in our homes, schools, and communities. We are thrilled with the success of the program so far!”
So far this school year the district has implemented the backbone of the recycling program with recycling totes in classrooms and office spaces along with several larger portable 95-gallon stations that the recycling company picks up once a week. There are also larger cardboard-only depositors outside each building. On average the district has shifted 1,500 gallons or approximately 7.5 yards of material from the landfill to the recycling center.
The Hemlock Green Team met recently and is planning some educational activities over the course of the next few months, which includes recycling assemblies at each building and recycling competitions at the secondary schools.
Superintendent Don Killingbeck said, “It is amazing to think that by the end of the school year that the district will have shifted 50,000+ or 250+ yards from the landfill to the recycling center.”