New recycling bins and buckets have started to appear in various places around SM North over the past two weeks.

The Environmental Education 2 class has taken on the project of recycling by raising awareness to the new bins and how the school help the environment by using them.

“We are working on this challenge called the Lexus Eco Challenge. Basically we’re just trying to redo the recycling system in the school because it’s really bad right now,” senior Savannah Beal said. “We are currently working on getting the announcements and putting bins around the school in the classrooms and in the lunchroom and stuff like that. We haven’t really started this yet but I think we want to put up posters also.”

Working with the special education classes, the Recycling Lexus Eco Challenge Group has already converted classrooms 201 through 247 to new recycling bins and put buckets in the Lunchroom, Student Commons, and Time Square.

“It is a lot of fun and it’s very interesting working with all the people that I do,” senior Tristen Morgan said. “I feel like it’s for the better and I feel like we should have done this awhile ago.”

Before the transition, the school was using old cardboard boxes for recycling bins in the classroom and there were no large buckets for cans or bottles at all. There were only trash cans around the school, which were about 70% full of recyclable goods the Lexus Group said.

“I’ve found trash like bottles that are completely filled with water in the bins before,” senior Yishayahu Gibson said. “I’ve taken a water bottle out of there that was unopened. Less than 20% of the whole school has been converted so far, but we hope to convert the whole school with the help of Deffenbaugh here soon.”