Two-plus tons of recyclable metal benefits Bethel Park school

A new generation is learning all about the importance of environmental stewardship.

And according to Bethel Park fourth-grader Abby Burke, plenty of people her age are planning to continue to do all they can on behalf of the earth.

She is a member of George Washington Elementary School’s Green Team, a group of students who meet every two weeks before classes begin. The youngsters take paper from various collection points around the building to outdoor receptacles for pickup, and they learn about environmentally friendly practices such as identifying items that aren’t necessarily disposable.

“I didn’t know that you could recycle so many things, like power cords and hand phones,” Abby said, “and I’ve also learned that aluminum is recycled.”

She and sister Ella, a former Washington student, were among many youngsters who dropped by with family members to add to the intake at a Kids’ Metal Collection Event in the school parking lot.

For the fundraising effort on behalf of the school, conscientious folks brought 8,820 pounds — that’s 2.41 tons — of scrap, generating $530.20, according to Tim Moury, president and CEO of Verichek Technical Services Inc. The Bethel Park business, which supplies instrumentation and services to the metals industry, partnered with Michael Brothers Hauling and Recycling of Baldwin Borough to conduct the event.

Helping transport various types of metal from vehicles to a massive, eventually full Michael Brothers collection bin were Washington third-grade teacher Tammy Williams, who leads the Green Team, and school librarian Becky Minella.

“We have a group of kids who are just beyond enthusiastic,” Williams said. “The Green Team started in 2019, and each year we have grown. We’re up to 37 members.”

Washington students have a history of participating in environmentally oriented contests and doing quite well in them.

“Our first year, we got $250 from PepsiCo, and we bought seeds for all the students,” Williams reported. Green Team members at the time presented a skit, written by student Sydney Glover, centering around all of the waste created at a holiday party with plastic bottles, straws and bags. The skit included fun facts about recycling, including that the average American creates four pounds of trash per day.

Along with learning how to protect their planet, team members have opportunities to develop their public-speaking skills, according to Minella.

“They got a little taste of that with Read Across America Day,” she said about the early March initiative. “Our normal presenters who come in to read to the kids fell through, and we threw it out to the Green Team, saying, ‘Hey, we could kick off the metal drive by reading the book ‘The Girl Who Recycled 1 Million Cans.’ They said, sure, and they went around to all the classrooms in our building and read the story aloud.”

The book is provided by Scrap University Kids, a Bellingham, Wash.-based educational program with the goal of eliminating metal from the waste stream within the next 30 years.

Another aspect of the Green Team is helping to spread the word about events like Earth Hour, observed this year on March 25, the same day as Washington’s collection. The objective is to encourage people around the world to switch off their lights and spend 60 minutes doing something positive for the planet, and more than 414,343 people in 187 countries participated, according to the Earth Hour website.

Williams and Minella credited fellow staff members with providing a great deal of support for Green Team activities, including Principal Fred Pearson, who not only helped with the metal collection but brought coffee and doughnuts for fellow volunteers.

“Today, we are having people who are bringing staples and jars of nails all the way to water heaters, washers and dryers, and grills,” Minella said. “So it’s just amazing to think of what we could be doing to keep things out of the landfills.”