Last month, Student Council adviser Chad Cooke emailed the entire staff asking them to put used markers and batteries into boxes delivered by STUCO officers for them to collect every third Tuesday. However, because of the extended weekend, they collected Wednesday, Feb. 18. From there, one STUCO officer will deliver the collected supplies to Staples for them to recycle. This project was started by senior and STUCO parliamentarian Miranada Sanchez.

“In the math department, a lot of the calculators have old batteries, and they didn’t know what to do with them,” Sanchez said. “I looked into it, and I saw that you can take them to Staples, and they’ll recycle them, because you can’t throw them away, and they’re just kind of taking up space, especially in the math closet. So, I just thought it was a good project to implement in the school, just to save the environment.”

After doing more research, Sanchez said she also found out Staples accepts old EXPO markers, too.

“We used to have [paper] recycling here on campus, but then the city stopped recycling paper, and then it just became really difficult,” Cooke said. “Then [Sanchez] said that [Staples] will recycle batteries and markers if you just take them to the stores.”

The reason STUCO is doing EXPO markers and old batteries is because “it was small” and “could fit into a box,” Cooke said.

“I’m hoping it’ll turn out good,” Sanchez said. “I think it will. It’s just something easy that you could put in the box, you don’t really have to worry about it, and we’re going to pick it up. So, I just hope that people actually implement it.”

STUCO president senior Story Hillard said she doesn’t think they will collect a lot.

“I have not seen a lot of people doing it, but I think it’s just because they don’t know or maybe they haven’t run out of stuff yet,” Hillard said. “Honestly, I don’t know what we use batteries in. People don’t use EXPO markers a lot anymore because we’re using smart boards. So, honestly, I don’t know how much is going to be available to discard because we’re not actually using that stuff that much anymore.”

If students want to donate, they can either give the supplies to Sanchez herself or put them in Cooke’s box.

“I’m hoping that it will be implemented throughout the whole year, and that they’ll continue to do it,” Sanchez said. “Just like how we do the cans for homecoming. We do that every year because we started it one year, and it just continued. That’s what I kind of hope will happen with all the projects that we do.”