By Michelle Newell, CMC Green Certification Program
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – A long awaited gift for the Northwest Vikings was recently received on the school grounds last week.
A bright yellow dumpster donated by Harris One Hour Heating and Cooling, a Partner in Education for the school is now being used to keep plastic bottles out of the landfill and the students and teachers are excited about it.
“It’s important that we teach students what they can do to make a difference in our environment. Recycling is just one way we can make a difference,” said NWHS Science Teacher Andrea Laws. “We do whatever we can to turn everything into a learning experience for our students. This gives us the opportunity to measure what we’ve been able to keep out of the landfill. We are grateful for our bright yellow gift.”
Laws has been coordinating with Megan Harris Vargus of locally owned Harris One Hour Heating and Cooling regarding the dumpster for the school.
“Recycling is very important to our company especially since participating in the Clarksville-Montgomery County Green Certification program. Because of the positive impact recycling offers we wanted to provide this same opportunity for our Partner In Education, Northwest High School. We are very excited that the students, faculty and people in the community will now have a convenient place to recycle which in turn creates less waste and is healthy for the environment. In addition, hopefully this will encourage local businesses in the community to partner with our schools and provide these types of resources,” said Vargus.
Northwest High School already recycles paper, and cardboard. The plastic completes the number of things that can typically be recycled within a school.
“There are good incentives for our schools to recycle – it reduces the volume of garbage the system sends to the landfill, a percentage of revenue made from recycling is given back to the schools through Bi-County Solid Waste Management and those within the schools are making a difference for our environment. Harris One Hour Heating and Cooling has been a model business in the CMC Green Certification Program so it is not surprising that they would do something to make a greater impact,” said Michelle Newell CMC Green Certification Program.
“The School System is thankful for the many contributions from local businesses. We want to greatly expand our recycling efforts to include recycling the thousands of plastic bottles that can typically be found in the trash at after school events,” said Shedrich Webster, CMCSS Operations Manager.