Our Team : Jonathan, Alexis, Kham Me, De, Jennifer, Luz, Ana, Lavi, Michael, Chong

1. YG Recyclers Land/Water Challenge #1 Our Team : Jonathan, Alexis, Kham Me, De, Jennifer, Luz, Ana, Lavi, Michael, Chong Teacher Advisor: Mrs. Wright Yuba Gardens Intermediate School Olivehurst, CA

2. YG Recyclers: Our Issue - Educate others and provide easy ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle! As the YG Recyclers, we chose to focus on waste management with a special focus on recycling. We want our planet to be beautiful – not a dump! When we looked at our campus, we noticed that students and teachers are not recycling enough. There is paper filling regular trash cans and people are using too many paper towels in the bathrooms. Paper is being wasted when it can be reused or recycled. Our families aren’t recycling much either. We want to help make a difference. The big issue is that people are not recycling and are being wasteful.We can change this by educating others!

3. YG RECYCLERS - Our Actions Make a Difference! YG Recyclers - Step-By-Step Actions: • Brainstorm big issues on campus • Contact Yuba-Sutter Recology • Request blue recycle bins for classrooms • Decorate bins • Deliver to each classroom and explain use • Make posters • Post Posters • Create Public Service Announcement • Visit Yuba-Sutter Recology • Make Video of trip • Share information with our school, other schools, and families • Create website to share information with everyone

4. How will we get it all done?!?

5. Will we be successful? Our team will measure success in many ways. First, we will simply see that more people at school and home are recycling. If they are, there will be less paper, plastic, and cans in the trash cans and more in the recycle bins. Next, we will ask people what they know about recycling. If our education has worked, our community will have more knowledge. Finally, we will see each week how many classes are using the recycle bins correctly and if we notice fewer paper towels being used. Our team will quantify impact each Friday when we collect the blue recycle bins. In the past, zero bins of recyclable materials have been collected and turned into the large blue recycle bins. Although any bin collections would be an improvement, we would like to collect recyclables from all 35 classrooms.

6. Here is how we did it: Our team worked together to get the Yuba Gardens community to recycle. We received blue recycle bins and decorated them (using recycled paper, of course!) for each classroom. When we delivered the bins, we told every class what they are for. We also did research and created posters to educate students and teachers. In order to reach out to the community, we recorded a PSA. Finally, we went to Yuba Sutter Recology to find out what recycling is all about. To share this information with others, we made a video on our trip. For our big event - our team has declared November as “Yuba Gardens Recycling Awareness Month”. To prepare for this we did all of the activities in the paragraph above and then created tips of the day that are being read during the morning announcements each day in November. Our website has also been launched. It has PSAs, copies of our posters, useful links from our research, daily tips, videos, and teacher resources.

7. Building Partnerships: Yuba-Sutter Recology, our local transfer station, helped us along each step of the way. When we contacted them in September, we learned that 75% of waste in landfills is paper! This helped us focus our project. Yuba-Sutter Recology delivered 35 bins for us to use in our classrooms. They also gave us a tour and told us about what they do to recycle everything. Did you know that even concrete is recycled? We wanted to make more of a difference, so we wrote letters to a 2nd grade classroom at Montgomery Elementary School in San Jose, CA. Mrs. O’Neill’s class will learn about our project and will be able to see our website.

8. Spreading the word about our project: To get the word out about our project, we created a Public Service Announcement, Video, and website with blog and forums. We are launching the webpage now and look forward to lots of visits during our Yuba Gardens Recycling Awareness Month! Visit our website at www.ygrecyclers.info Don’t forget to listen to our Podcast/PSA! You can also get to our website through the MJUSD website by clicking on Schools and Selecting Yuba Gardens Intermediate. From the YG website, there is a link to Eco Challenge projects.

9. Were we successful? Our plan was successful because we were able to deliver 35 recycle bins to classrooms. Students and teachers are now aware of the recycling program and are using it. We did have a few challenges scheduling times for teachers to allow us to talk to their class. Some classes were not in classrooms when we showed up. We were able to keep going to classes until they were there. Another challenge is that people were still throwing paper in the regular trash cans outside. We are going to see if we can put large recycle cans around campus to solve this problem. Time was also a challenge since we only had a month to get all of this done. We were busy!

10. Raising Awareness: To raise awareness, we made posters, decorated recycle bins, talked to all classes during 3rd period, and set up a website. On our website, we are posting Public Service Announcements, a video of our trip to Yuba Sutter Recology, and links to research information, tips, and teacher activities. Blogs and discussion forums are being set up also. We are trying to share this website with radio station in English, Hmong, and Spanish. People can automatically translate information on our website so language is not a barrier. Everyone can learn about recycling!

11. Preliminary Results: So far, 28 classrooms are using the blue recycle bins. The bins each hold a lot of recyclable paper. In our classroom, there were 157 pieces of recycled paper in one week alone. Even if the other 28 classrooms are only recycling an average of 100 papers, then 2800 papers each week are being recycled instead of sent to the landfill! The quantifiable results are looking good. We will continue to measure throughout the year and post our progress on our website. Since November is now Recycling Awareness Month at Yuba Gardens, we expect that more will be recycled!

12. What will your team/school/teacher advisor do with their winnings? Team members are excited to use winnings in the following ways: • Save for college • Help family out • Buy new clothes • Go out to dinner The school is excited to use winnings to purchase new supplies and technology. We would like to support the Eco Challenge group and send them on an educational field trip. We also desperately need toner and paper for our copy machines. Our teacher advisor is excited to use winnings to purchase new technology and exciting educational videos!

13. Project Gallery: Our Team in Action

14. Project Gallery: Planning, Posters, and Letters

15. Project Gallery Yuba-Sutter Recology Decorated Blue Bins Yuba-Sutter Recology – aluminum bales