Every day, Chamblee High School’s staff and students use recyclable materials such as paper and cardboard. Paper for notes, homework, and tests often wind up in trash bins when they are no longer needed; in an effort to reduce this waste, Chamblee’s Earth Tomorrow club has brought recycling back to CHS.

In the past, CHS has had a recycling program; however, problems arose when CHS began raising fines over contaminated recycling dumpsters. 

“The recycling dumpster [had been] contaminated with [non-recyclable materials] by individuals outside the Chamblee High School community,” said Earth Tomorrow Sponsor, Ms. Gabby Gross, the club’s sponsor. “Due to fines over the contamination, recycling was discontinued.”

Ms. Gross worked with Deena Keeler, DeKalb County School District’s Waste and Recycling Specialist, to find solutions to those previous problems. Fortunately, there were already plans to add a recycling dumpster at North DeKalb Stadium, on the CHS campus.

“The recycling dumpster by the stadium was actually spurred by students at another DCSD high school, and it worked out that it was going into place as we began our collection,” said Ms. Gross.

Once the recycling dumpster was put into place and bins were distributed to participating classrooms, recycling collection was organized by Earth Tomorrow’s president, Lily Anna Ollinger (‘26). Bin collection is typically held weekly during Bulldog Time. 

“[Recycling] was very organized,” said Samantha Culler (‘28), who recently began volunteering with the Earth Tomorrow club. “We met in Ms. Gross’ room, decided what floors [the volunteers] would cover, and then split up.”

Volunteers, which vary week to week, visit the classrooms with recycling bins and dump the waste out into larger carts. Once all the carts are full, they are taken down to the recycling dumpster in front of the stadium.

“[Earth Tomorrow has] a list of classrooms with [recycling] bins, and we have a cart or two on each floor, so we like to have at least like nine [volunteers] each week,” said Ollinger.

Recycling collection counts as volunteer hours for different service-based clubs, such as Beta Club and National Honor Society. In order to sign up for volunteer positions, students must utilize their Remind app. 

When volunteering for the Earth Tomorrow club, volunteers often have to pull out incorrectly recycled materials, such as chip bags.

“The bins [in classrooms] are not very deep, so we can easily see what’s in them and put [incorrectly recycled trash] into a trash bin,” said Ollinger. “At the beginning, the carts in teachers’ lounges would have lots of trash, but now all of our carts and bins have signs on them to show people what can and can’t be recycled. It works 90% of the time; there are still a few times where it’s not perfect, but it’s been pretty good so far.”

To make collection smoother, teachers have been asked to leave their recycling bins in the hallway during Bulldog Time, but this doesn’t always end up happening.

“There are times where the bins aren’t outside of classes, but most of the time, you can go [inside the classroom], so it’s a pretty navigable problem,” said Graham Davidson (‘28)

As the end of the school year approaches, Earth Tomorrow has begun discussing future plans to continue and expand recycling across the school.

“Next year, [Earth Tomorrow plans] to have recycling cans specifically for plastic bottles in the gym and gym lobby,” said Ms. Gross. 

After the recycling program’s startup this year, Earth Tomorrow plans to continue prompting sustainability initiatives at CHS for years to come.