By Renée Abbott, News Editor
As fall leaves cover sidewalks, lawns and roads, so does trash. Like many public spaces, the Walpole HigSchool parking lot is littered with various pieces of plastic, glass and aluminum. From discarded coffee cups to remainders of mouth guards, plastic is an integral part of the WHS premises. In efforts to change this, the WHS Green Team organized the 2019 Fall Clean Up on Oct. 24, gathering roughly 30 people to collect litter on the school grounds.
“I think that when people come [to WHS for] sports, when there is a lot of trash around it makes us look kind of trashy,” advisor Karen Baumgartner said. “It is important to take pride in your surroundings and pick up after yourself.”
Shnaider is involved with environmental efforts in and out of WHS. He is a part of the Walpole Recycling Committee and has been asked to speak at local committee meetings by leaders of those organizations.
“[Nathan is] a great kid, he gets along with everybody and he definitely takes pride in what he does. He is a busy kid but is still able to get everything done,” Baumgartner said. The cleanup gathered students of all grades, as well as many faculty members. Clubs such as the Random Acts of Kindness Club, Spanish Club and Marine Conservation Club participated, as well as members of the Film Festival.
“I wanted to do this because there is a lot of trash around our school because our janitors are very busy inside the school,” sophomore Samantha Cappuccino said. “I wanted to make sure that the environment around our school is just as clean as the inside.”
According to Cure Litter, a Canadian Litter Reduction Task Force, it takes plastics bags anywhere from 200 to 1000 years to decompose, and a piece of styrofoam more than one million years to decompose. Glass, another commonly found discarded material, can take from one to two million years to decompose, while also having the potential to harm animals. Environmental Standards states that roughly nine billion tons of litter are dumped into the ocean annually, endangering the lives of numerous species such as whales, sea lions, green turtles and bluefin tuna.
“I feel like it is a good act to clean up the school because it helps the environment and helps to stop global warming,” junior Nelson Villalta said.
The Green Team is always accepting new members and hopes to potentially conduct another clean up in the spring, as well as continue their strides in bettering Walpole’s environment.