Amador Valley HS Club Recognized For Environmental Efforts

PLEASANTON, CA — A group of next-gen recyclers have been recognized for their efforts to help the Pleasanton Unified School District improve its environmental protection policies.

Officers from the 2018-19 Amador Valley High School Local Leaders of the 21st Club were awarded the "Next Generation Recycler" Award at the California Resource Recovery Association annual conference in Rancho Mirage on August 13.

The Amador club was nominated by Pleasanton Garbage Service which wrote, "Determined to help all 15 PUSD schools enact the PUSD Integrated Waste Management Policy, local leaders of the 21st Century Club at Amador accompanied staff from the Go Green Initiative to help with waste audits of a full day's lunch waste at every school from Jan. 5 to Feb. 13, 2019. During those six weeks, club members helped students and staff at nine elementary, three middle and three high schools audit over 2,300 pounds of trash, recycling and organics. They worked closely with Pleasanton Garbage Service to ensure they could advise all PUSD schools on what items were recyclable and compostable."

Accepting the award for the club were club vice-president Bryan Luo, now freshman at UCLA; club secretary Paulina Umansky, now a freshman at UC Berkeley; and club communications officer Lauren Londoño, now a freshman at Cal Poly SLO.

In his acceptance speech, Bryan Luo said, "We would like to thank our club advisor, Jill Buck, who connected us with [adults in our community], establishing multigenerational solidarity — an environment where adults and students are all connected — which was really crucial to the success of our project."

The students also thanked Pleasanton Garbage Service for nominating them for the award.