Prince Edward County Elementary School is promoting environmental awareness through paper and ink recycling program efforts.

“[Prince Edward County Elementary School] currently participates in recycling ink cartridges and paper. Dr. [Consuelo] Alvarez from Longwood University periodically comes to visit and collects all recycled material from PECES classrooms,” said school principal Carolyn Jones.

According to Alvarez, an associate professor of biology and chemistry at Longwood, the idea to start a recycling program at Prince Edward Elementary was generated eight years ago when she realized just how much paper was being wasted. At the time, she said there was no paper recycling program within the school, and Alvarez along with her son Henry Lutz, then a fourth-grade student at Prince Edward, inquired about starting the program.

“For the first two years, we weighed out the amount of paper collected every week and posted the totals at the principal’s office on a graph to indicate about how many trees were being saved,” Alvarez said. “After a year and a half, [Prince Edward County Middle School] and [Prince Edward County High School] started recycling too, but we have not yet been able to really obtain consistent collection of paper for recycling from all the schools,” she said.

Alvarez said about two years ago, a dumpster was placed at the middle school to make dropping off paper a little easier.

She and Lutz took on the job of painting the dumpster with recycling labels to avoid trash being placed with the recyclables.

“I still pick up paper from the elementary school, every week at least, and take it to the recycling dumpster at the middle school,” said Alvarez.

The Longwood professor believes that everyone has a responsibility to take care of the earth. “In addition, giving students the opportunity to learn about recycling at school may mean that the idea of recycling could spread to their own homes,” Alvarez said.