Megan Barber
Franklin Free Press
Today is Earth Day, a chance for everyone to pause for a moment and think about what they have or have not done this past year to help the earth.
Schools across the country spend this day educating students on the importance of recycling and taking care of the planet. After all, it is where we all live, so why wouldn’t we want to keep the air, water and soil clean?
First- and second-graders at Belgreen Elementary School posed this question to its community last month during a play written by physical education teacher Susan Crittenden entitled, “A Green Earth.”
“The students sang songs, danced, and recited facts about recycling to the audience,” said Dana Hill, second-grade teacher at Belgreen.
Some of the facts that the students presented to the audience included:
•Disposable diapers last centuries in landfills. An average baby will go through 8,000 of them!
•Each year Americans throw away 25,000,000,000 Styrofoam cups. Even 500 years from now, the foam coffee cup you used this morning will be sitting in a landfill.
•Americans throw away about 28 billion bottles and jars every year.
“We also used recyclable materials as our stage props such as milk jugs, paper items and cans that the children brought to school,” said Hill. “After the program, we carried the garbage to the recycling bins at Belgreen.”
These recycling bins are located across the road from the school’s auditorium. Paper, plastic and aluminum can be recycled at these bins. They are also for the community to use as well.
“We would like to encourage everyone to recycle their trash,” said Hill.
