Students, you may have noticed that the recycling bins in your classroom have suddenly disappeared.  This is because recently, Amador’s recycling program has ended due to changes in the City of Pleasanton’s recycling procedures.  

The recycling program was run by Amador’s band and born in 2007 with the help of Jill Buck, the founder of Pleasanton’s Go Green Initiative.

“We put bins in every classroom, students picked up plastic recycling every week, got out to maybe 50-60 classrooms on campus and involved about 100 students in our band that were helping to pick up recycling every week and get into a recycling bin that the city picked up,” said Amador band director, Jonatham Grantham.

The program was essential in helping create a more sustainable environment while benefiting our band.

“Our students in many ways liked helping that way…It was something that we looked forward to doing because we were helping the environment and we also got a little bit of a benefit in that our band got a little bit of money from City Recycling,” Grantham added.

Recently, the City of Pleasanton policy changed to require that recycling bins have solely recyclable items, causing significant inconveniences to the process that made the program user friendly for the past decade.  

Since this policy was put in place, students working on the program could no longer put plastic bags inside the bins to make an easy, convenient disposal.

“The city recycling has changed their policy where students had to take all of the bins, all of the bags they collected, and actually empty out all the cans and bottles that were in there into the bins, which not only was really messy…but it just took a lot more time. So, we collected the bins during our class periods and it added another 10 minutes, so we were missing like 30 minutes of class every single week,” said Amador band director, Patrick Dandrea.

After the program ended, our band directors reached out to Amador’s administration and the Leadership class to find a new group that could continue the program’s legacy. However, no one was willing to do so.

“Between the burden on the kids and the additional class time we were losing, it just wasn’t doable. I would love for another group to take it on but, if I can be honest, with the size of the program and the restrictions the city is now putting on it, it needs to be rethought” said Mr. Dandrea.

Despite Amador’s lack of recycling bins, it is still highly encouraged that students and teachers alike make the effort to recycle.

“If you would just be willing to please consider recycling, even though those bins are not in your classroom, make an effort to make sure that your plastic and aluminum don’t go into garbage cans on campus,” said Grantham.