There are 42 new recycling bins at Libby High School this year thanks to the efforts of a conscientious senior.
Sarah McBride will be graduating this spring but not after leaving her mark on the school’s recycling program. McBridge has spent the last few years helping better organize the program and even secured a $500 grant and 42 new recycling containers from the state.
The school has had a recycling program for more than a decade, but when McBride arrived four years ago she said it wasn’t well organized. Each classroom had a cardboard bin that teachers would fill and then put in the hallway. Student volunteers would then go around the school and pick up the bins and dispose of the recycled material in a larger container. Then the same students, usually McBride or a teacher, would take the recycled paper and other materials and personally drive it to the local recycling facility where it would be sorted by hand.
Now, each classroom has a bin and McBride has organized a system where students bring the recycle material to a central location within the school where a local company, Kootenai Disposal, picks it up.
“I think it’s been very positive and the bins are being used more and more every week,” she said. “And teachers are talking to their students about the importance of recycling. It’s just great to see those conversations happening.”
McBride’s teachers, including art teacher Patty Rambo, said the student has been instrumental in organizing recycling efforts at big school events as well.
“Sarah has a lot of energy and drive and we wanted to do whatever we could do to support her,” she said.
That energy drove McBride to seek a state grant and she said the school plans on using it to buy larger recycling bins. She said she is proud of what has been accomplished at the school.
“I didn’t want the recycling program to disappear after I was gone,” she said.