By Aaron Souliere
ROGERS, ARK–Haas Hall Academy at the Lane is saving the environment through the Environmental Sustainability Club. The scholar-led club has created and managed new systems for the Rogers campus to help reduce waste and limit garbage through the campus’ recycling project.
The Environmental Sustainability Club, created last year by teacher Dr. Jason Newell, is meant to make the campus more environmentally friendly and eco-conscious. The club has brought the recycling bins into classrooms and empties them weekly to help stop many recyclable items from being thrown into the garbage.
Jaiden Seymour, the co-leader of the club, is largely responsible for the school’s new recycling system.
“So I’m the project manager. I mostly manage the organization of the recycling, so that means finding volunteers and keeping track of who’s helping volunteer for that. Teachers are now collecting their recycling instead of just throwing it in the trash. People are now using recycling bins, and it’s actually going through the recycling center now instead of just getting thrown into the same dumpster as everything else,” said Seymour.
Dr. Newelll is glad the club is fulfilling its purpose of not only helping with the environment but also helping scholars to realize the individual impact they have on the environment.
“We have lessened our waste, which is space that is being taken up in the landfill, and our environmental impact has been lessened. It’s not a huge amount, but it’s some and the purpose is to get people to understand that they can make small changes that, added together, end up making a big difference. You’ve got to start somewhere, so you can start somewhere small to begin,” said Dr. Newell.
Along with the club’s main purpose, Dr. Newell has added his own science fiction flair to the club to show how the club’s goal can be seen as promoting life in the world. He does this using his fictional term “drot Kauellah.”
“(Drot Kauellah) was a term that I invented for a science fiction novel set in some distant future, but the idea was that culture was guided by this principle and this phrase was an integral part of the culture. And what it translates to is that “drot” means to bring something into existence and then “Kauellah” means the good or a better way of doing things. So that just means to bring into existence the best possible world,” said Dr. Newell.
The club mostly contains seniors but has recently had some new, younger members join. The club is trying to get new members, and Dr. Newell hopes to start new projects for next year such as a composting project.
“One of the things that we did talk about when we first started the club was composting food waste from the cafeteria, and we worked with the gardening club about creating compost.”
Jaiden Seymour, co-leader of the club, elaborated on how she hopes the club will progress next year.
“We do have some more people starting to join the club now, which is great, and hopefully, they’ll be able to continue the project and hopefully start new projects. We did have an idea about starting a composting project, and I think that’s maybe something that the younger grades can continue in the future years.”
The Environmental Sustainability Club has helped the Rogers campus reduce its environmental footprint and innovate new ways they can help the environment. New scholars joining the club would help the club with new projects and make sure there are enough people to maintain recycling next year.
