PROJECT POLAR BEAR
POLAR BEAR INTERNATIONAL
Polar Bears International is an organization dedicated to conservation through research, stewardship, and education. This group focuses on the environment of the polar bear and the health of that ecosystem. They have awesome resources for everyone to become a part of the solution to help planet Earth.
One such resource is their annual competition inviting students world-wide to conceive and implement a project within one of the categories offered. Student teams are small – typically 2 to 3 – who are motivated to make an “environmental difference.” Roger Bacon fielded a team last year (The 3 Garbateers) that implemented our All School Composting Program. This team reduced our CO2 emissions by over 64,000 lbs. The efforts were coordinated with our Planeteers (ecology club) for the paper and aluminum recycling and the Chemistry Club for the recycling of electronic and batteries. Also, the Chemistry Club began the Terracycle program which recycled snack bags and zip-loc baggies. The entire Roger Bacon community became united in efforts to Recycle/Reuse/Reduce. This Roger Bacon community helped reduce our landfill input by thousands of pounds!
It is now time to introduce Roger Bacon’s 2011 team – The Trashless Trio. Our team consists of sophomores Stephen Post and Nicole Guldner and freshman, Kevin Dinh. This team will pick up where The 3 Garbateers left off. They will continue our all school composting, help educate our students, faculty, & staff on recycling issues, produce public service announcements, visit other schools to help them with setting up recycling programs, and coordinate the myriad recycling projects happening at Roger Bacon. The Trashless Trio will work to spread the message of becoming good stewards of our Earth and help teach everyone how to effect change.
Click here to view the PBI website and learn more about the organization and the efforts of your very own team in this competition! Please check in regularly to read about our progress and to learn about how you fit into this very important effort.
The Trashless Trio, one of Cincinnati’s Polar Bear International teams, met with Ms. Barb Wriston-Ruddy, a representative from Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB), last Friday, December 2nd. The team members learned about KCBs programs for area school children. The Trashless Trio will be taking these programs to area school to teach school children about our environment and recycling. The programs include KCBs “Recycle This!” about where our Earth’s resources come from, what they are used to manufacture and why it is so important to recycle. Also, students learned about “Fred the Fish” a water ecology program aimed at teaching our youth the importance of our area watersheds and how pollution affects our waterways. Please visit the Trashless Trio (Project Polar Bear) at the Roger Bacon website at the student activities page. If anyone is interested in more information please contact Megan Guldner at mguldner@rogerbacon.org.
The Trashless Trio, one of Cincinnati’s Polar Bear International teams, is focusing on reducing the carbon footprint of Roger Bacon High School. To reduce our “carbon footprint” means to help reduce our emission of CO2 into our atmosphere. The team is continuing our composting efforts, by composting all compostable waste from our lunchroom and campus. Also, they are working with our school ecology club, the Planeteers, and the chemistry club to recycle plastic, glass, aluminum, paper, snack bags, batteries and such. Thus far these efforts have resulted in a reduction of CO2 emissions of in excess of 100,000 pounds! In an effort to improve our ability to sort the waste that Roger Bacon produces, the team aided the Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB) team in a trash audit at Rees E. Price elementary school last Friday December 2nd. Nicole Guldner and Stephen Post, 2 members of the Trashless Trio, sorted through and weighed the day’s trash. This will help Rees E. Price school officials and KCB to determine how much of their daily trash output can be recycled and what changes the school can make to reduce their trash output. Our team members brought back this insight. The Trashless Trio and our Planeteers will perform trash audits at Roger Bacon to determine if there is any way to help increase what we can recycle and identify further what items we may want to eliminate from our trash signature. Our team is dedicated to reducing our waste output to area landfills and to educate our families and the public about the importance of becoming and remaining good stewards of our Earth. Please visit the Trashless Trio (Project Polar Bear) at the Roger Bacon website at the student activities page. If anyone is interested in more information please contact Megan Guldner at mguldner@rogerbacon.org.
