Denton ISD Our Impact In Your Community Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 18

Calhoun Piloting Program
to
Greatly Expand Recycling

C

alhoun Middle School students are
already accustomed to recycling
paper and cardboard materials, and this
year they’re expanding their reach to
include even more materials.
As part of a new initiative from the city
of Denton, Calhoun students are piloting
carton recycling, which is in the planning
stages for other Denton ISD. Through the
program, students can now recycle items
such as milk or juice cartons when they’re
finished eating, saving a large amount of
recyclable materials from going to a landfill.
Principal Paul Martinez said his school’s
success with its recycling programs boils
down to a positive environment that
fosters success.
“I think our adults sort of set the norms, and
the kids really followed their lead and ran
with it,” he said. “A big part of this is we’re
an International Baccalaureate school, so
we encourage our students to think globally
about how they impact their environment.
These kinds of programs aren’t hard to instill
with those kinds of ideals.”
To prepare for the city’s new recycling
initiative, Calhoun didn’t have to do
much recycling receptacles were
already in place, and the main area
cartons were used was in the cafeteria.
After trying it out the first day of school,
however, the school decided to add
a strainer to prevent straws from being
placed in the wrong area when liquid
cartons were emptied.

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Beyond that modification,
however, the school hasn’t
run into any problems with
the program. Zarian Presley
Boone, a Calhoun sixthgrader, said the process is
simple, and students who
don’t know how to recycle
their items are guided by
school staff members.
“There’s always someone
there telling us what to
do [near the recycling
containers and trash
cans],”  she said. “So if
you have a carton on
your tray, they’ll let you
know you have to pour it
out and recycle it.”
Lloyd Spence, head custodian at Calhoun,
said students became accustomed to
the process “within a few days” and now
need little guidance regarding where to
place their recyclables. The addition of
carton products increased the school’s
overall recycling by about 20 percent,
Spence estimated an increase so big that
now the city picks up recycled materials
from the school twice a week instead of
once a week.
As Denton ISD looks to expand the
program, the students’efforts wi