“I strongly believe we need a renewed commitment to recycling at Ramaz. I regret that we have not been as scrupulous about this essential environmental concern as we should be,” said Rabbi Stochel. “We need a revival of our efforts and I include myself in this self-criticism.” Recycling at Ramaz has been neglected by the student body. Students carelessly throw their trash in the wrong bins, which effectively makes it impossible for the school to recycle the other items in the bins.  

Given the current pressing environmental issues the world is facing, it is the students’ job to do our part. What can we as a school possibly do to help with this global crisis?There are regularly about 180 days of school every year and around nine classes each of those days. Assuming each teacher only hands out one piece of paper to each student, our four hundred students would waste close to 65,000 pieces of paper every year. Obviously, teachers hand out way more than just one piece of paper a day and that class handouts are far from the only source of wasted paper in our building which makes the issue even more pressing. 

A few years ago, a recycling initiative from the student body got the administration to get recycling bins all across the school building that are still there today. Unfortunately today, those recycling bins are filled with garbage and are then wasted. As Rabbi Stochel said, the administration is currently waiting for students to revive the environmentalist movement, and we could be the generation of Ramaz students that helps our environment and the world.

Many of the students at Ramaz care about protecting the environment, and a recent poll shows that 80% of the student body “generally care about protecting the environment.” Furthermore, 57% of students consider recycling in school somewhat or very important. Recycling is a small step that Ramaz can take to make a big impact on the world. 

As students who care about the global community, and as Jewish people who care about tikkun olam, we must be more aware of our actions. 

It is clear that recycling is very important for the environment and that a substantial portion of the Ramaz student body cares about it, but what can we do to start recycling at Ramaz?