Flagstaff Academy formed a Green Team in 2017 when a group of students realized how many items were being thrown into the trash instead of properly sorted. Since then, students in this group have tackled major problems in their school in the hopes of making a larger difference.
Alegra Vigil, Ella James and Russel Duster are seventh graders at Flagstaff and officers for the school’s Green Team. It is their job to lead the group in finding new solutions to make a change in the environment.
“I want to be an informational source for other people, as someone who sees all of these problems that we are doing because we don’t realize it is actually hurting things. Being able to tell people what they can do instead is a really power thing,” James said.
The trio have many ideas but the one they heard from their peers the most is to institute a composting program at the school.
The school currently accepts volunteers who help students place their food waste in the proper bins; recycling, trash or a rescue bin. It is important to the students at Flagstaff to reduce as much waste as they can.
“We only have one earth, this is it. If this is gone then we’re all gone,” Duster said.
The students would like to find a way to compost at the school. During a meeting on Wednesday, they introduced a few ideas such as creating a worm farm or gathering several outdoor composting bins.
The students on the team are still in the idea stages of the process. They are currently looking for more community members willing to speak to their group so they can learn more about what it would take to compost at their school.
The next step for the Green Team is to approach the school’s administrative staff. The team will present solutions to be considered and work on ways to make the idea feasible at the school.
Students on the team two years ago went through a similar process in order to get an outdoor classroom built and to begin a battery recycling program at the school.
