I am alos a studet in NW PA, I go to Central Tech in Erie, Phoneraiser is a good one, collectt old phones send them in and they pay a couple of bucks for ea.

PS sorry about so many , ’s

There are several options available to you depending on faculty involvement, student interest and local facilities.
Aluminium is always a valuable item for recycling and cans can easily be crushed and stored in trash bags.
Waste paper can be seperated and either reused for scrap notes or sent for recycling.
Almost all plastics can be recycled in one way or another.
Northeast Middle School had a recycling campaign last year which was apparently very successful, possibly you could contact them and see if they have a co-ordinator who can help set up your own program?

Here’s some advice from a Pleasant Valley grad…

Cell phone collection boxes, soda can recycling, old clothes collection boxes… These are all easy, inexpensive, and quick to set up.

Paper. Newspaper, phone books, office or school paper is all classified as #8 and #9 product in manufacturing concerns who use it. The going rate is between 80-90 per ton. There are companies who will donate a collection bin, pick it up when full, and in fact pay.

Considering it takes 275,000 trees to make just 1 Sunday Edition of the NY Times, and that 44 million indivdual copies of newspapers are produced every single day (while only 40% find their way into a recyling bin ), this is not only a very worthwhile endeavor, it could be profitable.

Next would be aluminum cans, crushed. These are something everyone (especially kids) use daily. The cans can be crushed by purchasing a simple, cheap hand operated crusher and then donated to a worthy charity, or sold to raise money for a worthy cause.

Recycling is not only good stewardship, it can be profitable.