For the past 20 years the Ecology club has been recycling and picking up trash around school grounds as a part of the Potomac Watershed Cleanup program. The Potomac Watershed Cleanup foundation was created to promote recycling and clean up of local rivers and estuaries. The South Lakes campus itself has two different rivers and streams, providing an optimum location for the ecology club and other students to participate.

On April 14, 25 students volunteered and collected 10 bags of trash, 8 lbs of glass, 6 lbs of aluminum cans, 8 plus lbs of plastic bottles, a 15-foot cable, and a “No Parking” sign. Under the leadership of science teachers Katherine Offutt, and Stephen Scholla, and math teacher Mil Matey, the trash and recycling products were taken to the school’s recycling bin and trash can.

With the aluminum cans that were found, Matey took them to create a larger impact than cleaning the environment.

“Every year after the cleanup, I take the aluminum cans that were collected and take them to the local Fire and Rescue Department,” said Matey. “There, they sell each can for a few cents and donate the money to burn victims.”

The Potomac Watershed cleanup foundation as a whole collected 13,944 trash bags, 80,600 recyclable beverage containers, and 14,164 cigarette butts, which totaled 81.45 tons of waste. The top brands that were collected were McDonalds, Pepsi, Deer Park, and Budweiser.