“Unsure” the most common word used to describe the recycling practices of Wheaton-Warrenville South High School among both students and teachers. When asked whether WWS recycles, Dr. Stellwagen, activity director at South, stated, “Some things [are recycled] but definitely not everything.” 

Wheaton-Warrenville South High School classrooms have recycling bins, however, many students and teachers claim that the school does not recycle or that students have poor recycling habits which lead to contaminated recycling. 

In South classrooms, some students claim that recycling is not worth the effort since the school does not recycle. “Since people know that south doesn’t recycle, I don’t think they care,” stated senior Audrey Feitl. 

Feitl is not the only one who expressed such a sentiment, as 50% of the 38 South students surveyed believe that WWS does not recycle. If students are correct in their suspicions, the impact of the recycling practices of WWS reaches far beyond Tiger classrooms. 

The American Federation of Teachers states that “people, businesses, schools and other organizations generate, on average, 4.7 pounds of waste per person every day.” Furthermore, the organization continues by revealing that “schools and other education facilities often are among the largest waste generators in any city, county or state.” 

However, some students claim that the reason for the school’s suspected recycling practices is because students do not recycle. One student, Rumesa Razi, expressed her view on the topic. “I was told by my sister, who worked with the superintendent and custodians for Green Team at South, that whenever the custodians see any food in the recycle bins they just throw the whole bunch into the trash no matter the amount of actually recyclable things in there,” stated Razi. 

Teachers corroborated the lax approach students take to recycling, expressing that, on a scale from one to five, one being no attention given to sorting into correct bins/all in garbage and five being everything recycled correctly into separate bins, 84.6% of 13 teachers surveyed gave their students a two or three on the scale. 

Principal David Claypool lent his administrative view to the matter, expressing that WWS does recycle, however, student actions can make the execution of the job difficult. “Often, items that could/should be recycled can not be because they are disposed of improperly in classrooms or in the cafeteria,” stated Claypool. A vicious re-cycle: students believe the school does not recycle so they are not careful in their recycling. Recycling bins are contaminated due to careless recycling so everything must be thrown away. 

Whether or not recycling at WWS is occurring is up for debate with the majority of students and teachers expressing either uncertainty or negative view on the matter. Regardless, WWS and its students should expand efforts to be more conscientious and careful in recycling as the potential environmental impact is overwhelmingly positive. The National Recycling Coalition states that “a national recycling rate of 30% reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the road, […] every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees […] and recycling conserves natural resources, such as timber, water, and minerals.” The potential benefits of recycling are numerous and well documented. Now it’s up to South students, teachers, and administrators to closely examine and become more transparent about the recycling practices of Wheaton-Warrenville South High School.