Greenwich High School went “Green” this Monday in honor of Earth Day with the help of the Environmental Action club. Students tried to follow a policy of recycling all trash during lunch, participating in a Campus Clean up on Sunday, and helping plant trees by sponsoring a global reforestation project. The day is a great way to promote environmental awareness and sustainability. My friends and I talked about taking shorter showers, my science teacher advised us all to walk home, and the morning announcements reminded students to conserve energy. However, it's a little sad to me that we need a reason to go green. We should always implement environmentally-friendly methods in our daily lives as often as we can, not just in honor of an awareness day. According to Mission San Jose High School in Fremont, California, more than 20% of trash in high school is accidentally thrown in recycling bins. When this happens, all the recycling gets thrown in garbage bins and we don't get to recycle at all. This is a problem I have witnessed at Greenwich High School where kids mindlessly toss apple peels or leftover sandwiches in piles of recycling for bottles. There are also a lot of car emissions every morning with people rushing to work, rushing to school. When fuels burn, it releases CO2 into the atmosphere, which hurts the environment. So, with a lot of cars on the roads, we end up releasing a lot of carbon dioxide. In the past forty years, CO2 levels have increased by almost 25%. If this type of car usage continues, it can only worsen. So how can we help on a daily level? We need recycle properly and separate food from recyclables. We need to turn off lights and appliances when they are not being used to save power. It's also important to walk or bike when possible. Water is a valuable resource. A simple way to conserve water is to turn off water when brushing your teeth. Last but not least, remember your 3 R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
