St. John's School Excells in Program "Eco-Escuela"

St. John's School in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is leading the charge in the program "Eco-Escuela" by reducing the amount of solid waste their school creates by purchasing and installing 3 solid-waste reducing super cool water fountains! Wilma Meloen explained to the chapter that the "acquisition and installation of these water fountains was only achieved through the combined effort of many teachers, parents, and students operating under their program called ''Project H20,'' which is a program designed to raise awareness about solid waste reduction." Mrs. Meloen along with the rest of the St. John's faculty, staff, students, and parents are all working together as a team to reduce their schools footprint on the environment and they are doing an excellent job. It is initiatives like these that supports their efforts in becoming a green school under the program ''Eco-Escuela.'' Congratulations St. Johns School and thanks for the invitation to participate in your schools Earth Week!

The bottles on the strings were collected by the science club during the spring semester and strung up to represent how much solid waste their school could reduce by not consuming single-use plastic water bottles.

This is one of three new solid-waste reducing super cool water fountains recently installed at St. John's School.  Students can simply drink from the spout or fill and refill their reusable water bottles as they desire. 

 

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.

SF Recycling Program Congratulates Winning Classes with Prizes and Pizza

The outreach and education component of this years reef restoration project came to a close this past week after the chapter held its final pizza party for the class that recycled the most in their school-wide recycling program.  The two schools that participated in the chapter's outreach and education program associated with this project were MAS Integrated School in Anasco and Jorge Seda Crespo in Rincon.  Recycling totals for the two schools can be seen by clicking here.  The outreach and education program began when students were exposed to the growing problem of marine debris in the ocean through educational and interactive presentations given by the chapter beginning back in October.  Then, the chapter invested $1,000 in each school's recycling program (with funding from NOAA) in the form of recycling bins, purchased from AMEC PR, to be used in the schools.  Prior to beginning the recycling programs in January, the students painted the containers with sea creatures that are threatened by marine debris to remind the students why it is important to recycle.  After those events, the chapter coordinated the pickup of the materials on a weekly basis with each schools municipality, and just to change things up, the chapter had each school compete between homerooms to see which class could not only recycle the most but also record how much they recycled.  As an incentive for their efforts, the chapter reached out to companies in the surf industry such as Rip Curl, Roxy, FCS, and Nixon, to get prizes for the class(es)/individuals that excelled in the program, recycled the most, and recorded accurate data.  These companies fully supported our goal of stimulating an inner conservation ethic amongst the students and were happy to reward them for their efforts with their great products.

The chapter is very pleased to report that the programs were a great success and we hope to implement more programs like these in other schools along the west coast and around Puerto Rico.  Below are photos from the pizza parties held for each winning class during the last two weeks of the semester.  The chapter would like to thank each school for their participation in this outreach and education program, Rip Curl, Roxy, FCS, Nixon, Oneway boardshop, and volunteers that contributed their time to help make the educational component for this year's marine debris removal and prevention program a great success.  Thanks! 

 

 

 

        

If your school is interested in participating in this type of program for the academic year of 2012/2013 please contact the chapter at salvatrespalmas@yahoo.com


Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.

School-Wide Recycling Programs were a Great Success

The final tally is in!  Between both MASIS in Anasco and Jorge Seda Crespo in Rincon the schools have combined to recycle 80 (95 gallon) full containers of plastic and 39.75 (95 gallon) full containers of aluminum.  Check out the winning classes below!

MASIS                                                                             Jorge Seda Crespo

Best All Around: Class #10                                             Best All Around: Class #8


Most Plastic: Class #10                                                    Most Plastic:  Class #8

Most Aluminum:  Class #9                                               Most Aluminum:   Class #8

Most Plastic Counted:  Class #10                                     Most Plastic Counted:  Class #8

Most Aluminum Counted:   Class #9                                 Most Aluminum Counted:  Class #8


If we were to assume that single-use plastics were the only material being recycled in the schools, and the fact that a single-use plastic bottle measures ~8.5", and that 350 single-use plastic bottles fill a 95 gallon container then MASIS has recycled (33 x 350 = 115,500 bottles) and JSC has recycled (47 x 350 = 16450 bottles).  When we take the amount of bottles recycled for each school and multiple it by the length of a single bottle we get the length of the "bottle-string" the school is compiling and heading on an adventure around the island!  The MASIS bottle-string = 2.49 km and the JSC bottle-string = 3.55 km.  See the progress of each bottle-string in the image below.  Click on the image for a larger view.

Detailed counts per class are seen below. 

Congratulations to the winning classes!  This is truly an amazing effort that should be replicated at other schools around the island.

Contact Wessley Merten at 787-436-8300 or wessley.merten@upr.edu for more information on helping out in this coral reef restoration and marine debris removal effort.