Health & Fitness
Ryan School Green Team Posts Impressive Recycling Results
Ryan Green Team is dedicated to saving the environment and raising money for their school.
The Ryan School Green Team, a volunteer student group dedicated to recycling paper in the school, posted an impressive 2012-2013 season. Waste paper was collected from classrooms once per week and placed in one of the school’s two Paper Retriever receptacles. Led by parent volunteer Dodi Patriarca, the team worked efficiently to gather as much paper as possible.
According to the Paper Retriever’s Scorecard, in eight months of Green Team collecting, the team recycled approximately nine tons of paper! Though there is some debate as to the correct ratio of tons of paper recycled to number of trees saved (because the type of paper and size of trees are variable), an estimate that seems to frequently present itself is one ton of recycled paper equals seventeen trees saved. This means that the Ryan Green Team saved 153 trees this school year. 18,000 pounds of paper is an impressive feat for fifth and sixth graders.
Paper Retrievers are located at each of the lower and upper elementary schools, as well as the middle school in Tewksbury, and the public library. Residents are encouraged to save scrap paper, newspapers, catalogs and magazines and use the retrievers as a way to recycle and give back to these institutions.
