A Look at GOA’s Recycling Program

By Daniel Shapiro ’23
In the past two years, Golda Och Academy has tried to implement a program to encourage recycling in the student body. There are now around 50 recycling cans spaced throughout the school, both for paper and for plastic. However, the program has not been without a few snags.

Junior Shayna Goldwasser said, “I would love to use the recycling cans but I often find myself taking my recycling home because there is already mixed trash in the cans.” 
With the new school administration there may be opportunities for improvements to not only the recycling system, but also to other aspects of our school’s environmental impact.
Head of school Rabbi Daniel Nevins aims to prioritize, “not only recycling but reducing our use of plastics and other single use items.”
Rabbi Nevins continues, “Going forward, we hope to expand the kitchen and food preparation facilities here so we won’t have to rely on external caterers who deliver food in disposable packaging. If we could in the future have actual food service here that would allow us to serve in a way that was more sustainable, that would be ideal.” 
With this attitude towards environmental awareness, the hope is that students will be more inclined to use the recycling bins for their intended purpose in order to help the program function to its full potential.
Junior Isabelle Zellan said, “I’d really like to see people actually use the cans, as a school we have the appearance of an eco-friendly system, but in reality things just go in whatever is most convenient and not what is the most eco-friendly.” 
Freshman Shayne Cytrynbaum added, “I think the broken recycling system is a really bad sign that some students don’t care enough about environmental issues. It is really crucial that our school, and society in general, makes sustainability and ecological responsibility key guiding principles. Recycling should be one of the easiest changes to implement, so it is really disappointing how some students are not prioritizing that right now.” 
As GOA moves forward into this new era of environmental awareness, the recycling program can make an impact for many years to come.