Some juniors at Manhattan High skipped seventh hour last Friday to … save the Earth. Welcome to Earth Club.

Until recently, the only recycling that happened at MHS was through the personal initiative of some teachers. These individuals set cardboard boxes on the floors of their classrooms with appropriate labels, and drove those boxes to Howie’s Recycling themselves to dispose of their contents. Now, clubs provide recycling bins at strategic points around the school and periodically empty them into a dumpster outside. Then, a truck from Howie’s picks up the recycled items regularly.

The idea for the recycling program arose when school officials recognized the amount of trash wasted at Manhattan High.

“We produce a lot of trash at this school,” Andrew Farmer, sponsor of Earth Club, said. “Three dumpsters a week. And so when I took the job two years ago, I told Mr. Hoyt we’d do something about it, as I was taking care of Earth Club.”  

Though the idea of the recycling program was born two years ago, the pickup did not begin until last Friday due to lack of time and funding.

“They tried to get it started last year but just didn’t get the fees in,” Grace Gallagher, junior and Vice President of Earth Club, said. “[This year] we finally got all the clubs involved to pay the fees, which made it better.”

Stucco, National Honor Society, Spanish Club, German Club, Thespians, FCCLA, BPA and Earth Club funded the project together.

Members of these clubs will also take turns picking up recycling every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each club is assigned pick up duty for either one or two weeks of each semester, depending on the organization’s size.

“All the clubs participate,” Kaylee Fritchen, junior, said. “We have these first two weeks … and then the next club takes over.”