Parkside Elementary School is part of the Rockford Public School system.  They achieved the highest ranking as an Evergreen Michigan Green School this year!  But do they stop there?  No!  They keep pushing forward to become greener and greener!  

Part of the Annual Earth Day Challenge is to develop a carton recycling program at your school.  Parkside Elementary has recruited students, parents, and staff to take this challenge on. Aubri Lovell, a member of the student Green Team told us what they’ve been up to:

We made a video with facts about recycling milk cartons and how they pollute the Earth.  We talked about how we are going to start recycling cartons at lunch time and we showed the steps on how to take care of your carton when you’re done with lunch.  So far, we shared the video with our student Green Team, but after spring break, we’ll share it with the whole school so we will all know how to recycle our milk cartons everyday.  If we recycle our cartons every school day, we could save more than 50,000 cartons from a landfill in just one year. (And we’re not even a very big school!) Let’s keep on going green!

For other aspects of the challenge, Brownie Girl Scout Troop 4791 did research and made a display about the importance of cartons and what cartons can be if they go on to have another life through recycling.  An Earth Day themed Family Fun night is also in the works so that parents can learn about the importance of carton recycling and find out how to recycle cartons at home too.  

Parkside Elementary is on their way to accomplishing great things as they take care of the earth.  As Izzy Stuckey, a second grader and member of Troop 4791 says, “Recycling is keeping the planet alive.”  Let’s all go home and make some changes in our lives to help Parkside Elementary accomplish this!