Whiz Kids: Creve Coeur Area Students Plan Successful Recycling Event

Name: Manali Gokhale & Alex Motely

Class: Junior

School: 

Key To Awesomeness:

Manali and Alex were driving forces in organizing what is believed to be the school's first electronics recycling event. Last weekend, Parkway North's Recycling Club held the event in the school parking lot.

"In school we only recycle paper, aluminum and plastic. and a lot of people have electronics that they don't know how to recycle and they don't know how to properly dispose of that are sitting around their house," Gokhale said.

The free event was designed with a simple purpose: help the environment.

"We were just hoping we could get as much of the old electronics in the community recycled as opposed to going into the landfills, so we were just hoping we could get as many as we could," said Motley.

The school partnered with Kirkwood/Webster Groves-based Computer Trade and the St. Louis Blues for the drive. There were raffle tickets for autographed items and tickets.

Computer Trade's Scott McClendon conservatively estimated that the drive kept 40,000 pounds of hazardous chemicals or items that could otherwise be salvaged and recycled, from going into local landfills.

Students said they were surprised by the turnout, and McClendon said based on their success, he hopes to do as many as 10 drives each annually. There is already talk of a second event in the fall at Parkway North.