How Does the Green Team Earn $Green$?

The Green Team is active in many fundraising endeavors such as concession stands throughout the school year, Terracycle Collection, and Planet Green Recycling. With Terracycle and Planet Green Recycle, we are removing items from the waste stream and turning them into cash for our projects!
Want to find out how you can help? First, do your research, visit Terracycle.net and register, then become a part of the EJSHS Green Team by selecting it from the menu options. When your finished registering there, go over to www.planetgreenrecycle.com/ejshsgreenteam and buy recycled ink cartridges from the website because 15% of the purchase price goes to the Green Team! Second, drop of your used ink cartridges and old cell phones in one of the many 'Planet Green' drop off boxes around town. In addition, start collecting those Terracyclable items such as Mars candy wrappers, Capri Sun and Kool-Aid drink pouches, and Frito-Lay chip bags to turn into the Green Team!

Planet Green Recycle Drop Off Boxes
Flint Hills Feed
GWCO Courthouse
GWCO Hospital
G&W
Alco
New Beginnings
Alan Johnson's Reality
Eureka Post Office
Community National Bank

Terracycle Drop Off
GWCO Courthouse
Eureka Jr/Sr High School

We're Being Attacked!

The Green Team's community garden is getting a sour taste of nature, if its not swallowtail caterpillars on our parsley, its hornworms and grasshoppers on our tomatoes! Because the Green Team would like to keep the garden free of artificial insecticides/herbicides we are going to use the idea that the local greenhouse operator gave us a while back: attack bad bugs with good bugs! We are going to use the harmless and tiny Braconid wasp, which is a natural parasite to the hornworm, to help get the population under check! This wasp will help with other pests as well!!

In the future, we are also going to plant dill, parsley, fennel, and cilantro close to our tomatoes in order to curb the hornworm population! If you have any other ideas, please let us know!!

It's Growing, I Mean Going, Well at the Community Garden!

Thanks to everyone who has been out to help with the community garden! We have picked so many squash and zucchini, peppers are about ready, and there are watermelons!! Just wanted to remind everyone of the new hours: Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday the Garden will be open from 7-9pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays it is open from 6-8 pm. Please come out and see us! Thanks again :)

Help Needed in the Community Garden!!

The EJSHS Green Team Community Garden is up and growing! This means it is time for us to open the gates and let some community members in to help! Please give me a call or email the greenteam if you would like to schedule a shift with the community garden. Remember, after you have donated 30 minutes of your time, you have your pick of the garden! Chores would include basic garden responsibilities such as watering, mulching, and picking/pruning. I will be busy with the worms and the windrows, but will be available during hours to help. The hours are going to be 7-9pm weekdays starting June 20th. Enjoy :)

The Verdict is In!

Christmas of 2010 was when the Green Team realized that the HS had a problem. We conducted a waste audit where we weighed and documented all of the waste that was going into our dumpsters. We concluded that there was too much recyclable waste being disposed of improperly. So that's when we amplified our paper recycling collection, started to recycle cardboard, magazines, catalogs, glass and plastic containers of all sorts. In addition, we started to compost our cafeteria's food waste. We collect, mass, and mix 100% of our lunchroom waste and compost it to make our 'home grown top soil' that we have since used to plant lots of flowers and our community garden. This last semester we made sure we took meticulous data and the graph below tells us that we are wasting a huge amount of food during our lunch periods.

Spring of 2011 Data

                                        

Windrows created from mixing food waste, manure, leaves/grass, paper, and saw dust

 

 

If you would like to know more, or have any ideas on how we could curb our waste in the cafeteria, please let us know by commenting here, or by emailing us at ejshsgreenteam@yahoo.com.

Green Team Outdoor Classroom has just added a Community Garden!

Over the last few weeks, the EJSHS Green Team has been working exceptionally hard to bring the community of Eureka their own public garden! The garden is located on the west side of the Marshall Elementary building. It has four equal sized plots that are 10'x30'. Even though it is 1,200sq ft, we started small to ensure the success of our garden. The Green Team would like to say thank you to some very important individuals for making this a reality: Lisa Moots, owner/operator of the Eureka Greenhouses with her husband Eric for supplying the garden with wonderful plants! Also to Roy Wade for volunteering to come out and till for us! And finally, the faculty and administrators with USD 389 for their cooperation, flexibility, and support during this process.

If you would like to become a member of the community garden planning organization please email us at ejshsgreenteam@yahoo.com with your name, occupation, and the capacity with which you'd like to help. We are currently looking for people of all ages to participate in 'Making This Garden Grow!' We will be setting up meeting times to discuss ground rules, hours, shifts, and much more!

In addition, if you would like to learn more about vermicomposting or the lunch room waste composting that is going on as well, please email us!