Student Senate and BRAGS (Black River Area Green School) are pairing up to bring the recycling program back.

The high school once had a recycling program which ran for about five years. Now, with the Student Senate starting up this year again, senators are trying to bring back recycling.

“The program had started to fade out,” said student senator Paul Rykken. “We initiated the program, and I think the Student Senate ran it for at least 2 years, and then it went over to the Science Club to what we called the ‘Go Green Team’ and they had it, but then it kind of faded out.”

While every state has its own regulations, Wisconsin schools are not required to recycle but are highly encouraged to do so.

“There’s no law that says you have to do it. I think because they’re taxpayer supported they should be doing it. It seems logical,” said Rykken. “We decided it would be kind of ridiculous for a tax-supported institution like a school to not be recycling. It doesn’t make sense,” said Rykken.

To help get this program started, Student Senate is planning on designing and printing posters to spread the word. New bins will need to be purchased and organized, and labels will be made with the help of BRAGS.

“We should try to get the recycling program started in the high school first and then move on to the other schools,” said Senator Bob Severson.

“Every bin in the hallway is basically garbage. Even though some of them are clearly for paper you know so it’s just this […] thing that we’ve got going on right now where everything’s just garbage,” said Rykken at the February 17 senate meeting.

Rykken advises that one challenge in establishing the program will be to adjust student and staff recycling habits. The goal is to have the program going by the end of the term. With this, the school will be on track to be recycling by next fall.

“Once we get it going, I think it’ll work fine, but we also have to re-educate the building,” said Rykken.