Mark Laury, Ministry Lead of MFEP at Chaminade College Preparatory, St. Louis, MO, sends us this update about the school's CSC - Chaminade Sustainability Corps initiatives such as recycling electronic waste, school stationery, composting, planting a native plant garden, and food donation for Haiti in the past year.
Chaminade, St. Louis, has been working on a variety of sustainability initiatives this past year. In April, the Chaminade Sustainability Corps sponsored a community electronic waste collection. It was open to the school and the broader community. Close to three tons of electronic waste was collected and diverted properly from the landfill.
This past Christmas season, CSC collected unwanted 583 lbs of Christmas lights. Over the last six years, over two tons of Christmas lights have been collected and recycled.
At the end of the 2024 school year, our Middle School counselor, Mrs. Griese, and Mrs. Tieber, with CSC, organized a locker cleanout. 275 lbs of recycling were collected as well as partially used pens, notebooks, binders, and other supplies that were put to reuse when students are in need of such items.
Our bookstore has been deliberate in keeping used books out of the landfill. Our bookstore manager, Mrs. Ostermueller, is diligent in finding a second or third life for our used textbooks. She organizes selling them back to a book-by-back program. She hosts an annual used book sale, which sells used books for less than 50% of what our students would pay elsewhere. This past year, 11 students were granted books at no cost. Books that have little value domestically are given to a faculty member, Mr. Bangura, who sends them to schools in Liberia.
Mr. Kelly’s Middle School science class prepared and planted a native plant garden.
On Earth Day this past year, CSC students and families volunteered to work at the St. Louis Earthday Festival, sorting refuse into compost, recycling, and landfill.
Chaminade’s athletic department partnered with Passback, a local organization that works with sports clubs to collect used sports equipment and clothing. Passback creates a circular economy where the collected items are sold online, donated to underfunded sports leagues both domestically and internationally, or recycled properly.
We continue to improve our effect by composting much of our food and containers in the cafeteria. Many of the plates, bowls, cups, and silverware are reused and run through the dishwasher. We are grateful to our food service personnel and Chef Jon, who continually adapts to the everchanging supply chain of what serving containers are currently compostable and recyclable.
CSC is charged with ongoing pen, marker, and pencil recycling. Each classroom has a container in which teachers and students put dried-out dry-erase markers, pens, and mechanical pencils. These are recycled through TerraCycle, and the plastic is reused to make “plastic lumber” for decks and furniture. So far, we have donated over a hundred pounds of these items.
Recently, Chaminade hosted a “Pack-a-Thon for Haiti”. In two days, over 100,000 nutritionally dense meals were packed for the extremely food-insecure island of Haiti. This was coordinated by our Campus Minister, Errol Christian, in conjunction with Hôpital Sacré Coeur. Our students and families were joined by many others throughout the community in making this event so impactful.
Dear Mark, thanks very much for doing all of this, but especially thanks for educating Chaminade students to continue to do it. Great work!