DANVILLE — Young environmentalists at North Ridge Middle School helped to properly dispose of some 400 gallons of used oil Monday morning.
North Ridge teacher Brian Klett and a handful of students in his ECO 905 Environmental Club class held an oil recycling drive in conjunction with Safety Kleen.
As community members brought containers of vehicle oil to the school, Klett and his students poured it into a large 55-gallon barrel which was pumped into a big Safety Kleen truck tank.
ECO 905 is one of the electives available during the middle school’s flex period, which allows students to take their choice of classes when they’re not getting tutoring help for skills tested on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test.
The class has had a few different groups of kids totaling about 75 since the beginning of the school year.
The young activists in the class are officers of the club, which plans clean-up activities throughout the year.
The class is conducting a paper recycling event — with a goal of reducing 1,600 pounds of paper waste per month.
Klett received a grant from the district’s foundation that put dry erase boards in classrooms.
“We’re trying to choose from a bunch of ideas,” he said.
Klett noticed that the Catlin FFA group did an oil recycling event this past fall, and thought it would be a good fit for North Ridge too.
Safety Kleen donated its services to the event for free.
Klett inspires his students to be loyal conservationists by discussing real-world examples of pollution with them. Klett shows a display that depicts how oil gets into drinking water, and discusses reducing waste in landfills.
A handful of students braved the chilly morning temperatures to work outside at the drive.
“We’re recycling oil because it’s bad for the environment,” explained Brandon Holst, a seventh-grader and board member of the club.
“A lot of people have it; it’s good to get it recycled.”
“Future generations could drink that water and get sick,” Holst said of oil-contaminated areas.
He wants to be involved in environmental causes out of a concern for conservation.
“We only have so many resources,” he said. “We have to conserve what we have before it’s all gone.”
Jacob Osgood, a sixth-grader, was also hard at work helping with the drive.
He hopes the drive will help locals recycle in a cost-effective way.
“It costs a lot,” he said of the oil recycling.
“People can get rid of it in an unsafe fashion. We’re collecting it so it can be processed and used again.”
The club plans more Earth Day observances later this month, including an environmental fair in which classrooms can enter a competition. The prize will be fresh-baked cinnamon rolls made by Klett’s wife, who owns a cake business.
The group will also plan a community day in which students will pick up trash and recyclables around town.
The recycling event was co-sponsored by Keep Vermilion County Beautiful and Vermilion County Recycling and takes place during the Great American Clean-up 2009, a Keep American Beautiful annual event that takes place across the county during March, April and May every year.
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North Ridge recycles oil
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