A new generation of South Portland students is learning the importance of recycling thanks to a new partnership between the city, the school department and ecomaine, the local waste-to-energy plant.
Recently Julie Rosenbach, South Portland’s sustainability coordinator, and Leo Maheu, ecomaine’s education program manager, collaborated on a presentation that they are taking to all second grade classrooms in the city.
The students are taught about the Three R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle – as well as ideas for increasing recycling efforts in their homes and at school.
“Second grade is a good age to begin these lessons because the children are open to ideas, eager to help and can influence their families by leading these initiatives,” according to Jane Eberle, the school department’s director of business partnerships.
It also meets several of the second grade learning targets, Eberle said, which include exploring their neighborhood through the sharing of common attitudes, interests, and goals, as well as exploring how to care for their community and be a good citizen.
A city-wide goal has been set for increasing the recycling rate to 40 percent by 2020.
Second-graders at South Portland’s Skillin School have been learning the importance of the Three R’s – reduce, reuse and recycle – thanks to a new partnership among the city, the school department and ecomaine, the local waste-to-energy plant. “Second grade is a good age to begin these lessons because the children are open to ideas, eager to help and can influence their families by leading these initiatives,” according to Jane Eberle, the school department’s director of business partnerships.
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