All four campuses have implemented a new trash system in an effort to make the campus for environmentally friendly, which was introduced the first week back from Spring Break.

The new system features two options, “wet,” meaning anything compostable, or “dry,” anything and everything else. At first the system caused some confusion, but students slowly understood the change thanks to the help of teachers and signs that answered many questions.

“I think that so far the students have been doing pretty well, given that the system is completely different from anything we’ve done in the past,” said Sabrina Sidhu (11), Co-President of the Green Committee. “Initially it seemed like people would just throw their trash into whichever bin was closer, but now I actually see people taking a few seconds to make the right choice.”

The Upper School Green Committee is working with the Santa Clara County branch of Republic services, a trash provider, to implement the system at all four campuses and make the school as a whole more environmentally friendly.

“It concerns me because it has ramifications for you and your future and your children’s future and all of our future,” Diana Moss said. “If we can’t start thinking about what we do with our trash, that’s a sad thing. But the good news is the system has been installed at all four campuses, so the kids are being trained from preschool how to do it so the next kids who come up from the 8th grade are going to know exactly what it is and every year will get better and better.”

Although the trash system has undergone a major change according to Moss, it may continue to adapt in the future with the potential addition of a third option for “clean” paper. This, however, would require an agent external to the usual trash provider to pick up and recycle the unused paper.

This piece was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on May 16, 2014.