You’re never too young to start saving the Earth.

This is the motto of Calhoun Primary School. Pre-K students, who will be attending CPS next fall, learned about the importance of recycling by participating in the Mohawk Carpet and CPS’s Green Day presentation held on April 21st, just one day prior to Earth Day.

The school has set up a recycling program in partnership with Mohawk’s Waste Stream Management this school year, which allows students to recycle at school and earn cash for their school.

For the first portion of the day, students listened to Angie Gravitt, a second grade teacher at CPS, talk about recycling.

“We can’t just go to Wal-mart and buy us a new earth,” Gravitt explained to the pre-K students, and that seems to be something that they understand.

CPS students filled 511 recycling bags with plastic bottles from the students over a month’s time. Gravitt said she couldn’t do it alone however; the students at CPS are more than willing to bring in their trash and show support for the program because saving the planet is encouraged everyday.

Turning plastic into carpet

Next, Mohawk ‘Greenworks” employees Lacreta Carson and Tricia Buchanan demonstrated what happened to plastic bottles once they are collected.

Carson and Buchanan brought posters and diagrams displaying each process a plastic bottle goes through before it becomes the very carpet the children were sitting on.

The duo explained that after bottles are recycled they are sorted. Then the labels are removed and the bottles are cleaned and washed. From there, the bottles are chopped and steamed before they are made into fibers and put on a large wheel.

After the entire process of bottle-to-carpet was explained, the students watched a short video hosted by CPS mascot, Beecycle.

Loading Recyclables

For the second part of the presentation, students went outside to view the recycling van. Students watched as Mohawk ‘Greenworks’ employee Gary Keener showed they how he loaded the van.

Calhoun pre-K students currently recycle materials such as juice boxes, paper, and plastic bottles. However, next year when they become kindergartners, they will begin recycling other items such as tabs and aluminum cans.

For each 100 gallon bag of plastic bottles the students collect they receive one dollar. This money goes back to the school and is used for things such as spare school supplies.

Bags are picked up by Keener every other week. “The school does a really good job with this,” Keener said, “Sometimes I even have more than one load.”

---

The Waste Stream Management team of Mohawk and teacher Angie Gravitt, of Calhoun Primary School, helped Calhoun pre-K students understand the words: reduce, reuse and recycle during a special program on protecting the environment Thursday for Earth Day April 22.

With that, Calhoun Times asked pre-K students what they learned about recycling following Thursday’s program, and here’s what they had to say:

“You have to clean the Earth because you can’t buy a new one.” – Knox Holbert

“I like to recycle bottles. It makes the Earth happy.” –Isabelle Howard

“You have to recycle. You don’t want the Earth to break. I recycle my juice boxers.” – Landon Russell

“We learn how to save the Earth.” – Avery Greeson

“Plastic bottles and coke lids (what you can recycle).” –Abigail Redwine

“The recycle truck takes stuff and reuses it and makes it into new things.” –John Ross