Teacher inspires students to turn electronics into trees

When Hudson Middle School first-year science teacher Aaron Walczak launched the idea of a recycling fund-raiser for Earth Day this year, he wasn’t sure what the response would be. The result was not only surprising but lucrative.

Walczak organized a schoolwide competition to see which house could collect the most small electronics. Everything collected would be sold to Ecophones, a company that buys the items and recycles them, including cell phones, used ink cartridges, game systems, laptop computers, DVDs, digital cameras and Mp3 players.

“Instead of just throwing these non-degradable items away and further clogging our landfills, and instead of fund-raising by buying or selling items, students just had to bring in what could be considered junk in most households,” said Walczak.

To Walczak’s surprise, the students brought in about 1,500 pounds of items, which earned the school $1,250, substantially above the goal of $1,000 he had set for the first year.

Walczak said the money will be used to purchase semi-mature maple trees for shade and erosion control around the middle school’s new running track. He hopes to top this year’s total by even more and make the fund-raiser an annual event.

Tags: community, hudson, recycle, walczak