Verbum ~ Senior Magazine 2015

Go Green!

We, the AP Chemistry team, have launched a 'Go Green!' campaign, a whole program dedicated to 'greenify' Dar Jana International School. This is different than the other campaigns you hear with big promises and absent actions, telling you that you're killing the planet with meaningful videos and then leaving you to figure out whether a recycling bin even exists in this country. What we're aiming for is to interconnect a series of little actions that form one large change. More than that, this isn't something that we try to do and we just tell you about it. To make such a statement as 'change Dar Jana' means involving Dar Jana as a whole, teachers and students included.  Most of the little actions will give everyone at Dar Jana the opportunity to contribute. Beyond just telling you what's wrong and leaving you to it, we're working to provide you with the means. Everybody doing a little bit to make one whole change. Dar Jana is going green.

We're planning to have the standard categorized bins, in which the plastic goes in the plastic and the paper in the paper. With the statistics that we've drawn from a rigorous and (and spine-destructing disgust) thorough search through the trash cans of the classrooms, we found that over 60% is recyclable material that is clumped with waste and rendered useless when we could be recycling them. If you had your plastic water bottle in your hand and the 'recycle plastic' bin was right there, would you really just dump it in the normal waste bin when you could just do a little good? If you had the means to recycle, wouldn't you? That's what we're giving. By an established contract from the company that we had contacted, they collect the trash and take them to be reused with other manufacturers. Also, we're planning to implement nifty art projects using recyclable material to make handy and creative things. When it comes to spreading the word of the campaign, whether through presentations or otherwise, even the posters that we're distributing to advertise the campaign are made from recyclable material, diverging from the old, and honestly hypocritical, method of printing on paper to tell you to stop wasting paper. We're also striving to integrate our very own student-grown Dar Jana garden! Every class will have a respective plant to nurture, and with enough effort, we'll have a proudly grown garden that every generation can inherit the legacy of.  

We are working hard to make this campaign come true, and we're asking you to meet us halfway. Change can't happen if you expect others to give it to you. It only happens when you give the little effort to actually try. Throw your plastic spoon in the plastic bin. Remind your friend to reuse her bottle. Convince your math teacher to recycle the graded class work in hopes that it will serve a better purpose.  It's a lot of work, but hopefully, with the cooperation of Dar Jana, we'll be able to proudly call our school an environmental-loving place.

Jumana Mazhar

12- Pink