The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

The official student newspaper of Walter Johnson High School

The Pitch

A Spotlight On That Big Blue Box


Once upon a time, in a mystical land far, far away, there was this magical box called a “Recycling Bin.” It’s a little hard to imagine, so bear with me here: it’s a bright blue box, with a little triangular symbol on it.

The point of this box is shrouded in mystery, but legend has it that the people of this faraway land actually cared about this thing called the “environment.” For those of us who need a refresher, that pretty much means that they cared about the trees and the air and the water.

This might sound a little absurd to us nowadays. We throw our trash and recyclables wherever seems most convenient. We don’t discriminate. Our paper is often tossed into the trash can, our trash into the recycling can, our cans into the paper recycling, and many of us didn’t even know that we can recycle plastic. That’s only counting those few times that our paper, trash, cans or plastic even reach a bin.

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You may not have noticed, but those bright blue boxes decorate our hallways, too.

And that seems to be their main function at this point. Decoration.

This would most likely not be the case if we took just one more step (maybe two) and dropped our crumpled up math tests into that big blue box thing.

And judging by the amount of trash that goes into the recycling and vice versa every day, the intended purpose of these bins goes regularly unnoticed. If I had a nickel for every time I’ve seen a wadded up piece of paper fly across the room and into the trash can, I would be a rich girl. And what’s the point? Does that really make life any easier?

You may not have been aware of this, but when a recycling bin is contaminated with one piece of trash, the entire thing has to be disposed of. That’s throwing an entire can of perfectly renewable recyclables directly into the trash and ultimately, into a landfill. Think of all those poor trees who died in vain!

Let’s ask ourselves some important questions right now. Is this really necessary? Would it be so difficult to move forward an inch or two or to just aim for the appropriate can?

It all boils down to one thing: consideration, and the lack thereof. We’ve all forgotten or been too lazy to think of the environment before. We get so caught up in our schoolwork, social lives and extracurriculars that the last thing we think about is our planet. But in a world that is largely swimming in its own squalor? A little consideration for the environment would go a long way.

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