Sycamore parents Elizabeth Bruggeman and Sarah Newman are on a mission to inspire the next generation of environmental champions. To achieve that goal, these moms created and installed waste sorting stations in school cafeterias throughout the Sycamore Community School District.

“We tried to take recycling to the next level,” said Newman, to a local news website.

Because of their efforts, Newman and Bruggeman were picked to join the inaugural class of “Game Changers.” This is a new feature sponsored by The Community Press and Recorder that profiles residents that have made a positive impact to the community.

“This is about teaching the next generation to be good stewards and champions of the environment through waste reduction, composting and recycling,” Bruggeman said.

How they accomplished this is to create a waste sorting station at Symmes Elementary School back in 2013. The program was so successful that is went districtwide the following year. The waste sorting station replaces trash cans in the cafeteria. Now there is a spot where trash is tossed into slots that are labeled for compost, recycling and landfill. There was a bit of a learning curve for the students but once they understood how to sort their trash, it became second nature to them.

This is the kind of inspiring program that gets kids involved with recycling not just at school but at home, too. It would be easy to set up the same kind of sorting station in your kitchen. But you don’t have to stop the recycling there. There are a lot more items around the house that could be recycled if you work with the right partner like Junk King Cincinnati.

Junk King Cincinnati is part of a national chain of professional junk haulers who are all dedicated with keeping as much collected rubbish out of landfills as possible. They’ve been able to maintain a respectable 60% diversion rate. When you consider the national average is closer to 30% you can see that Junk King is keeping a lot of trash out of dumps. When you want to recycle your junk, turn it over to Junk King Cincinnati. They’ll handle it the right way.