Seven Freeport High School students who wrote a grant that helped expand the school’s recycling program have earned an award from ecomaine, a recycling and waste incineration facility that services 53 communities, including Freeport.

Dede Bennell, service learning and aspirations coordinator for Regional School Unit 5, accompanied the Earth Club students to ecomaine in Portland. The students took a tour, had lunch and received the company’s Eco-Excellence Award, given for their efforts in sustainability in the community.

The Earth Club started the recycling program at Freeport High through a grant last year. This year, thanks to a grant from L.L. Bean, the club has obtained a Dumpster, which it loads weekly with single-sort recycling bins that are distributed throughout the school.

Yacob Olins, a sophomore, said that Earth Club members believe it is important for the school to reduce its carbon footprint. The club meets every Monday during lunch.

“Now we have single-sort recycling bins in almost every room,” Olins said. “We also have CLYNK for returnable bottles. The bags get taken to Hannaford and we get the money for that. Teachers use the money from the CLYNK donations to buy gifts for ill family members.”

CLYNK is a Maine recycling company with a bottle redemption system offered at Hannaford supermarkets in Maine.

Olins said that Earth Club member Shelby Sawyer, who has since graduated, obtained a grant to get the Freeport High recycling program started last year. The advanced-placement environmental studies class picked up the recycling weekly and brought it to a town recycling Dumpster.

“This year we were able to get a Dumpster at our school, and on Thursday and Friday we pick up the recycling and we bring it out to the Dumpster,” Olins said. “Since Shelby graduated, we got more bins through ecomaine donations.”

Olins said that the school has to pay for garbage collection and for recycling. That will change next year, he said.

“They were able to stop using one of the garbage Dumpsters,” he said. “So they will be able to use that money for recycling.”

The Earth Club also plans to begin a composting program with the school’s food waste next year.

Frank Gallagher, communications director for ecomaine, said that the company gives its Eco-Excellence awards to groups from its member communities.

“It’s an award for really going above and beyond in pursuit of positive change,” Gallagher said. “What these students did is definitely worthy of recognition and honor. They took it upon themselves to expand the reach and the power of the recycling program in their school. That’s not a small amount of material.”

The owner-municipalities of ecomaine voted in 2006 to establish single-sort recycling. Single-sort eliminates the need to separate recyclables by category for collection.

Students from the Freeport High School Earth Club traveled to ecomaine in Portland on March 3 to receive an Eco-Excellence Award. Students from left are Kyle Dorsey, Bennett Hight, Zoe Fox, Maya Bradbury, Yacob Olins (holding the award), Perrin Davidson and Maya Egan. Also in the photo are Kevin Roche, chief executive officer of ecomaine, at far right, and Jim Gailey, chairman of the board of directors, in back, center. Courtesy photo

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