The world is our home. And like our own homes, we want to keep it clean and beautiful. Unfortunately, we have not done exactly that. In our American minds of "I want it now!", we have taken from the land its beauty. In the same manner, we have dumped the leftovers back into the land. Just the plastics we use occupy 20% of the landfills, and out of the 4,000,000 plastic bottles used every hour only 1 of 4 is recycled. The worst part is that that is only plastics. Everyday we throw away paper, plastics, food, glass, metal, clothes, hazardous materials, and much, much more. 30% of the world's garbage comes from America even though we have only 5% of the world's population. As home owners of this world, we are responsible to make it livable and last for many more years.

That is what we want to do. We of the Gackle-Streeter Ecology class want to make a difference. That is why this year our project is to recycle. Recycling saves energy, reduces waste, reduces pollution, and reduces our need for natural resources. The amount of landfills and harmful incinerators are reduced by recycling. Our goal is to involve the community in recycling and help make our world cleaner, healthier, and more beautiful.

As part of our project, the Ecology class is building recycling bins for the community to use. We will spread the word and try to get as many people involved as we can. The Ecology class will maintain the recycling bins that will be placed around Gackle and hopefully Streeter. The only thing we need are volunteersto take the recyclables to Jamestown ( It doesn't have to be the same person every time). We will plan to have them emptied every two weeks.

We are trying to make a difference. We are trying to help our community. But most of all, we are trying to change the world.