America Recycles event combines fun, education for children

The lords and ladies of Kimball were encouraged to attend this year's America Recycles event at Mary Lynch Elementary held last Friday. The elementary school eco club, which has played a big role in recycling this past year, was rewarded by an educational celebration.

Staff members from the Kimball Recycling Center collected large boxes, from appliances such as dishwashers and refrigerators, in order to create a large cardboard castle.

On display at the event were the up-cycled sculptures that the high school Spanish Club and agriculture students have been working on for the past month.

Several activities were also available for the children to participate in that all included recycled material.

"We had crafting supplies donated for the kids to work with. They all made crowns and shields out of cardboard and other things like paper and beads to go along with our theme of lords and ladies," said Larissa Binod, director of Keep Kimball Beautiful.

Also available for the chidden to work with was 'plarn,' also known as plastic yarn. Plastic bags are cut into long strips that allows it to be braided or even used for crocheting and knitting. The children were able to braid bracelets and other crafts out of this material.

Leta Leitsch and Jamie Carpenter were present in conjunction with the Kimball Public Library, and they ran a table that used old books to make coat of arms. That project went along with the lords and ladies theme of the night.

"I think that it was important for the kids to have fun, because they have been working really hard with eco club, teaching their school about recycling. I think that deserves a bit of fun," Binod said.

Surrounding the castle were signs on cardboard that displayed facts about recycling and recyclable materials. Throughout the afternoon, Binod could be heard asking the children present questions that could be answered by the information on the boards placed around the castle.

"I would ask them something like, how many different kinds of plastics are there, and they would shrug and say they didn't know, so I would tell them to go explore the castle, because the answers could be found within the castle we built," Binod said.

As important as it was that the children have fun, Binod and the those who helped also thought it important that the children be able to take away information that they could use.

"We really focused on cardboard, plastic and paper as our materials. We also really tried to encourage the up-cycling aspect of things. As I was teaching the kids, there are seven different kinds of plastics but only two are recyclable at the recycling center. So how can we repurpose those other plastics so that we don't clog the landfill," Binod said.

The America Recycles Day website has a pledge on it that all can take part in, in order to promote recycling. Currently in the U.S., 34.5 percent of trash is recycled. The pledge encourages people to learn about materials in their area that can be recycled. Secondly, it encourage those who pledge to act, and try to recycle more within the next month. Lastly, it asks people to share by asking and encouraging a family member or friend to take the pledge to do more.

"Recycling has amazing effects on the community and it helps out the landfills. If the landfills are filling up slower, that's good. A lot of Kimball's garbage can still be recycled and I really want to come up with a way to encourage people to recycle more," Binod said.

Binod expressed great appreciated for Castronics, which helps with recycling and works with Binod on various projects.

Carma Weisbrook of Mary Lynch Elementary and Pat Sulu of Kimball High School were two who greatly helped with the America Recycles event, as were there students despite the event being considerably smaller this year.

"It wasn't as big as it was last year. Last year we had it at the high school and there were a lot of high school students involved. Well I know this year the high school was very busy with the political forum as well as Veterans Day. However, I have already made sure to reserve the gym for next year's America Recycles and we already have quite a few plans and ideas," Binod said.

Binod hopes to get a goo mix of activity as well as educational booths for next year's event. However, she still deems this year a success even with it being smaller.

"We accomplished what we set out to with this event. We wanted to educate these kids and so we really focused on them. This year was a success. Next year I want to try to get more age groups involved," Binod said.

Anyone can learn more about recycling by visiting the Kimball Recycling Center and asking questions.

"We are always happy to help teach anyone willing to learn about what they can do to change their waste stream and recycle more," Binod said.