By: Wendy

Do you want to know how it feels to be part of the Green Team? Well in January, at Wagner Middle School, the Green Team and I helped the school to go greener.  We noticed that when we finish eating lunch, we simply dump our food, trays, and milk cartons right in the trash bin. Most people ignored the recycling bin and the liquid bucket where you pour the leftover milk. This has to stop and that was why we started to “Flip, Tap, Stack.”

The Flip Tap Stack helped in a major way even though there are still people who are not throwing their things in the right bins, but it did help make the school greener.  “Flip, Tap, Stack” is basically something that the Green Team has settled on for the lunch routine. What we do in lunch is that once we finish eating, we pour the liquids out of our milk cartons in the liquid bucket, and then recycle the milk carton. After that, we flip our trays in the trash bin, tap the leftover foods in the tray, and then stack the trays. Obviously people didn’t know how to do this process properly at the start, so we guided them.

For one week, the Green Team and some student volunteers help guide where to throw food. At first, it was pretty confusing for them, but as they did it day by day, they seemed to get a good sense of where and what to do with their food. They didn’t know if plastic cups were to go into the trash or the recycling bin and if aluminum foil was to go to recycling bin or trash too. Therefore, we told them that aluminum foil was to be recycled and plastic cups were to be thrown in the trash. When they were no longer guided, very few threw their things in the wrong bin.

Doing this process was just a little more work, but it’s worth it if it can make the world a little bit greener! That’s how our school worked with recycling and throwing out trash. How do you make this world a little bit greener?

Bio: Wendy is a student at Wagner Middle School in NY, NY. She enjoys being part of the Green Team.