Entering Educational Environmental Contests
http://populationeducation.org/
The new facility at the SWA turns trash into energy for the surrounding area using a claw machine (left) and the view of the landfill from the roof of the education center (right).
Eliminating the Use of Water Bottles at William T. Dwyer High School
Spreading Environmental Awareness & Educating Students
Without student environmental awareness, it would be very difficult to achieve full cooperation of the student body. One of our first projects was to get our mission and ideas out into our community; we decided to make posters to hang up around our campus. The picture below is three of our members making their posters, one of them quoting the famous environmentalist and Antarctic activist Robert Swan.
One important part of our venture into this new environmental territory was learning from the experts and from those who are already involved in sustainable practices. Our first experience with professional was when the team decided to visit the Solid Waste Authority on America Recycle's Day to educate ourselves on the efforts of those in our community.
Our last, and most recent, project is entering in the World of 7 Billion video contest. This contest challenges students to create a 60-second short video on population growth and its effect on one of the following: Climate Change, Ocean Health, or Rapid Urbanization. Check out our submissions on the margins of the home page!
Exploring what others are doing in the community
dwyer sustainability team
One project taken up by founder, Marielle Dagassan, was to diminish the waste produced by her cross-country team. Her efforts were featured in a video, titled
"Running and Recycling", by the Educational Network which can
be seen on the right side of this page. Additionally, the boys' cross
country team adopted the same system shortly after the girls team
implemented this method. By switching out disposable plastic water
bottles for a more reusable and sustainable alternative, both cross country teams are
eliminating their contribution of waste to landfills and therefore lessening their impact
on the environment.
To further this goal in William T. Dwyer's community, the team wanted to find an easy and more interactive way for students to make the switch from disposable to reusable bottles. The team applied for a grant from the We Are Dwyer Foundation to purchase two EZ Water Refilling Stations that allow students to refill their water bottles. Fortunately, the grant was accepted and two machines will be installed soon! What makes this machine interactive is that it counts up the number of plastic water bottles that are being saved from entering landfills and enables students to be a part of helping our school reduce its plastic water bottle consumption.