Vicksburg residents could soon be able to dispose of recyclable paper and plastic at one of four recycling bins placed at local schools.
The bins are part of a joint program involving the city, the Vicksburg Warren School District and Miss-West Industries, funded by a $50,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Feb. 6 approved an ordinance specifying what items can be put in the bins and setting penalties for violations.
Connie West, a coordinator for the school district’s GATES program for gifted students in grades 2 through 6, said one of the bins will be located at Sherman Avenue Elementary. The other sites have not been determined.
She said the students wanted bins, which are being stored at Midd-West Industries, to be refurbished and relocated at school campuses, adding the project is part of the class’ education on recycling, which uses materials from Keep America Beautiful.
“In the gifted program, we use their “Waste in Place” curriculum, which teaches children how to teach themselves, their families and their peers about the importance of reduce, reuse, recycle.
“We started that about a year and a half ago, and for their first project, what the students wanted to do was collect bottle caps called the ‘Make Me a Bench Project,’ where they collected bottle caps, sent them off to a recycling plant and they come back as park benches.
“One of our students found it, and it took off from there.”
The project, which is also sponsored under the grant, will allow the students to put benches at school campuses and at different locations in the city. She said the goal is to have the benches, which are being built in Indiana, delivered by the end of the school year.
West said students developed the project to refurbish the bins, and will do the promotion and education to show people the proper use of a recycling bin.
“This was something they were very passionate about,” she said. “The recycling bins will be open to the entire community, and they’ll be on our campuses, but MIDD-West will do the collecting.”