Profitable Student Recycling Program

I just read the following story this morning and wanted to share it. It’s amazing what a group of school children can accomplish without all the political and social pressures that most of us face. Check out this story and support the kids by buying the book.

LEOLA, PA – The new book, “Bringing It Back Around” provides step-by-step guidance for schools and communities to launch their own recycling center. The story of the student-run Purdy Recycling Center at Purdy High School in Missouri focuses on how students created a thriving, profitable recycling business to fund scholarships and club activities.

Available for $30 each (postage included) at the club website of spanish.purdy.k12.mo.us, the 63-page full-color book was written by teacher Gerry Wass, who serves as coordinator of the project. “We wanted to share our story and inspire other schools and communities to develop similar recycling projects across the country,” says Wass, a world languages instructor at Purdy High School. “In just under four years these students have made this into a profitable endeavor raising more than $6,000 while satisfying a community need.”

According to Wass, a limited number of free copies of the book will be available to the first individuals contacting him through the website.

Clean Burn®, a corporate sponsor of the book project, has a Clean Burn furnace in the Purdy Recycling Center. The furnace recycles used motor oil to generate heat for the stand-alone facility.

“Once you have a source of used oil, the most environmentally-sound way of disposing of it is to burn it to heat a building in the winter,” says Wass. “The Clean Burn furnace hangs from the ceiling, out of the way of other recycling efforts, and has allowed us to collect used oil filters from industrial clients like auto dealerships and auto repair garages.

“Once crushed, a 55-gallon container of used filters generates between eight and ten gallons of used motor oil — even if they’ve been drained. We add this to the other used motor oils we collect from our school bus fleet and other sources. The Clean Burn furnace transforms the used motor oil into free heat for our facility.”

Traditionally used in locations that generate large amounts of used motor oil — such as tractor trailer and heavy equipment facilities — this is one of the first times a Clean Burn unit has been used in a “home grown” recycling center project.

For additional details on the Purdy Recycling Project, visit Spanish.purdy.k12.mo.us.

There are 80,000 Clean Burn functional furnaces and boilers located throughout the world that burn millions of gallons of used-oil each year on-site, at the point of generation. This volume of used-oil would otherwise be transported on highway systems and pose a considerable risk to spills and/or contamination to the environment.

Clean Burn is an ENERGY STAR® partner. The company holds numerous industry certifications and works with the U.S. government, the Environmental Protection Agency and various associations to help coordinate the establishment of standards and regulations related to heat recovery and recycling efforts involving used motor oils. For more information on Clean Burn, visit www.cleanburn.com or call 1-800-331-0183.