By Angela F. Durkin
MARTINSBURG — Students at Saint Joseph School and Martinsburg South Middle School were recognized by the Berkeley County Commission Thursday for their efforts in the annual Operation Greenlid recycling contest.
Together, the two schools combined to collect more than 900 totes of material for recycling.
Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority (BCSWA) Vice Chairman and South Middle School Principal Mark Barney said Operation Greenlid was founded through a partnership with Apple Valley Waste.
“Some years back, our partnership with Apple Valley Waste led us to this initiative that we’re going to talk about today. Apple Valley Waste moved from single-stream recycling to commingled recycling at the curb. That resulted in them collecting a bunch of containers. They had a green lid and a yellow lid. They collected them back, and they gave their customers one single container to recycle in.”
Barney said the BCSWA took the outdated containers and distributed them to schools in the county who chose to be a part of the recycling effort.
“As a member of the solid waste authority, I put a lot of emphasis on education, and we work with them on a program that we like to call Operation Greenlid, where we take the containers that were left over that they collected back — the single containers we’re using. And, if a school wants to participate, they come and get some containers from us at the solid waste authority, and they participate in this recycling program, where they transport their material to the recycling facility.”
According to Barney, there have been different levels of interest and participation in Operation Greenlid over the years. This year, Saint Joseph School and South Middle School were the only participants.
“We had as many as five schools,” he said. “And, it’s disappointing for me that in a county of 31 (schools), we’re only getting five, but the transportation piece is a challenge for schools. They have to get the material there on their own, because the solid waste hauler cannot haul this. We have to do it on our own, so we’re relying on parent volunteers.”
The parents at Saint Joseph School have done an exceptional job, according to Barney. He said the school transported over 600 totes to the recycling center. South Middle School transported over 300 totes.
“If you look at numbers, it’s very impressive to me that a school with such few students is able to muster what they muster,” he said.
As the principal at South Middle School, Barney gave a hands-on account of how the project works. He said the project is run like a “simulated workplace.”
“It’s kind of a simulated workplace,” he said. “They have jobs. They have things that have to do. On specific days, they have to go collect. They collect, they store the totes in a specific staging area for us, and we, as a staff, work to get it hauled over. It’s a lot of work, but it’s saving landfill space, and we greatly appreciate everyone’s efforts.”
Barney said in the past, the prize money has been divided up in accordance with the amount of totes transferred to the center, with a higher amount for the most totes. He said they were planning to equally split the prize money between the schools since there were only two who participated. Each school received a check in the amount of $500.