Pontiac Township High School recently teamed up with Ace Hardware in Pontiac to bring more recognition to their current fluorescent light bulb recycling program.
Compact fluorescent lights (CFL) (which are described as the curly-cue compact florescent light bulbs many people use in their homes) contain small amounts of mercury and other harmful chemicals that can be released into the environment if the bulbs are not disposed of properly.
"Paul Ritter came in to get some paint one day and said that he was looking into battery and CFL recycling," said Ace Hardware Manger Tina Hammer. "I explained that we already have a program, but having the high school get involved would help raise awareness in the community. My hope was that kids will tell their parents about their program and parents will start bringing in their CFLs and we can work to make the community cleaner."
Brian Hitchins, an earth science teacher at PTHS and Ritter's earth science classes are working to make sure there is a safe and reliable way to dispose of burnt out CFLs. The students have been developing the program by adding posters, a collection bin and information on a student-made website which will eventually be attached to the Pontiac Ace Hardware website.
"I have learned a lot. I wasn't really sure about compact florescent bulb recycling, but through all the research that I've done, I've learned that it really is a problem and these light bulbs need to be recycled," said PTHS senior Ashleigh Haley. "It's really an exciting project because not only is it fun to be involved with something that helps the environment, but also it's fun to see a student-developed idea become something that is beneficial to the community."
PTHS will be giving their student-made posters over to Donnell's Printing & Office Products and the company will combine a couple of the posters for printing over the next few days. The high school also plans to link its Twitter account and website for the program to the ACE Hardware site, so that if people want information on recycling CFLs, they can go to the ACE Hardware site and find a link to the CFL website which the students made for more information.
The students, their teachers and Hammer also gave a short program to the Pontiac City Council Monday outlining this project.
Students are also designing a big bin for the CFLs to be deposited into. Originally, they had chosen a five-gallon paint bucket, but Hammer said it wouldn't be big enough because the big box that the Pontiac Ace Hardware store currently uses is almost always full. Hammer invited the students to come in and get different supplies to use.
"I would say currently we get in about 10 CFLs per week," said Hammer. "Now that there will be more awareness for this, I think we will probably get a lot more. It's totally free and it's a great thing to promote with the community."
Hitchins said the students are hoping people will take their compact florescent light bulbs and recycle them. The bulbs are made using glass, plastic and metal, so every part of the light bulb is recyclable. He also hopes when people hear about this project, they will invite PTHS students to help them promote their businesses.
"If people in the community have a problem like this and they want to get the word out, the high school can probably find some way to help with students who have good ideas to implement," said Hitchins. "The students like it because it's not the typical school work. We gave them a situation and told them to create something and we don't put a lot of limits on them; we just let them explore the possibilities."
