Last updated April 12, 2019
Mercer Elementary School is looking a little green as a result of its new cell phone recycling scheme, being headed by a bunch of third graders. Just before the Christmas holidays, the students of teacher Mary Lou Van Eman and Dana Olsen, the school’s reading recovery teacher, began to draw up their plans for a new cell phone recycling program. The third grade class has managed to get the whole of Mercer Elementary School involved with the project and as of Friday, over two hundred used cell phones have already been handed in. Third graders Dylan Nugent and Claire Steinbrunner say that newer used cell phones will be refurbished, given new chips and sent to island countries such as Haiti, while those old cell phones that are somewhat beyond refurbishing will be smelted and then recycled in other ways. The program, the main emphasis of which is on “Going Green” will carry on until the end of this week.
“It’s going to help our environment,” third grade student Grace Reidy says. “A lot of people like a clean area. It’s going to make a difference.”
The students, who went from class to class at Mercer Elementary School to announce the program, as well as declaring it in the afternoons via the school’s public address system, have also offered an incentive to students to participate, with Principal Scott Gates to offer a Popsicle treat to the student who donates the most used cell phones to the scheme.