<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering if you had any ideas for a high school Environmental Club to make environmentally-beneficial changes (like a petition). Everything that we've thought about involves a lot of money, but we still know it's possible for us to work on something that is less expensive. So any ideas that are practical and affordable for schools as well? Thanks.</p>
<p>Compost your school's food waste. Give to local farmers in exchange for free, local, nutritious food.</p>
<p>Something my school (not sure if it was Environmental Club) did was put up recycle bins specifically for cans during lunch so more people recycled, now they are there all the time.</p>
<p>In our school the Environmental Club put boxes in each class and labeled it for paper only and bottles and plastic. Then the announced it on the announcement and encourage teachers to use it. They collect the box from the rooms every week during lunch. It's inexpensive and could probably count as community service hours since it's during lunchtime.</p>
<p>we put a recycling bin next to every trash can with laminated instructions telling people exactly what they could and couldn't put in there.</p>
<p>we've also had a few saturday clean-ups of the entire campus. some science teachers give extra credit for their students to show up and help.</p>
<p>Well at my school, we're doing a pop tab collection contest and the winning class gets donuts or something like that, and we donate all the pop tabs to charities who actually use them for funding (i.e. Ronald McDonald House?). </p>
<p>Another thing you can do is like have this giant "Earth Week" on the week of Earth Day and then you can make each class do something to fundraise for a certain cause (WWF, Greenpeace, etc.) and pretty much they do all the work for you and come up with crazy ideas.</p>
<p>Sorry if I'm not supposed to, but just wanted to bump this up to get more responses. Thanks.</p>
<p>The val of my school this year started an Environmental Impact Committee at my school, and has been relatively successful, saving the school about 10K per year, modernizing school technologies, getting solar panels, and reducing disposable water bottle usage by about 90%....</p>
<p>You could try a battery drive. Most people just dispose of their batteries without proper disposal. Create a special bin for batteries and ask a teacher to hand out small candies for their batteries. We did that for our school, and we got 2 relatively huge bins of small double A batteries in about 3 weeks. Which is amazing since my school is usually so apathetic towards nearly everything :P</p>
<p>I founded the Environmental Club at my school this year, and right now, we're organizing a recycling system for the school. When you think of how much paper gets thrown in the trash, its alarming, and such a simple solution as placing recycling bins in each room can work wonders. </p>
<p>Also, we're contacting major corporations in the area and asking for donations towards solar energy technology that will reduce our school's energy consumption by about half. We've got about three thousand dollars so far, which doesn't sound like much, but we have only been in existence for two months. </p>
<p>We're also tossing around the idea a Pump 'Em Up fundraiser, where we would direct cars into the school parking lot, and pump up their tires with air for them. Driving on deflated tires wastes gasoline, as many people do not realize. </p>
<p>Just to put this in perspective: our club consists of about eight people, and our high school is miniscule, but our principal is super supportive. There's so much you can do, even with few resources.</p>
<p>I love the battery drive idea, Azarion.
I think I will most definitely be using that. (:</p>
<p>First, with the money issue... Fundraise! Have bake sales, etc. At said fundraisers, post facts about the environment to make people aware (e.g. 80% of plastic water bottles are NOT recycled).</p>
<p>-Post fliers around the school of environmental facts that impact teens and students</p>
<p>-Have an environmental fact of the day said on announcements</p>
<p>-Set up bins for plastics, papers, and cans around the school (and if you don't have those, just find cardboard boxes around the school or your house and label them)</p>
<p>-Set up a day for your club to go to a park or something and clean it up (set half the people to pick up recyclables and the other half for trash)</p>
<p>Have a contest between each grade to see who can recycle the most in a one month period</p>
<p>-Have the principal set up a rule that teachers MUST double-side papers</p>
<p>-Put boxes in rooms with one side of paper usable and the other not so as not to waste paper</p>
<p>-Try to convince teachers to allow you to email homework to them (although I realize that sometimes they have to have hard copies).</p>
<p>-Etc.</p>
<p>Hope I gave you some ideas!</p>
<p>ZINE FEST! team up with amnesty international and veg club (if you have them) and make zines about current issues, whether they be environmental, human rights related, or animal rights related. There are some really shocking things if you look for them. But make it a big event, get bands and food and everything so people will attend.</p>
<p>You could also petition your mayor to sign the mayor version of the Climate Protection Agreement. Sorry I'm not sure about the exact name, but I'm sure Google will yield some good results.</p>