Sixty million plastic bottles are put into landfills and incinerators every day. Were you one of the people who threw away a plastic bottle yesterday? The overall apathy of young adults is increasing, day by day. The changing environment is not something that a lot of students tend to think about. Bellarmine’s very own Green Team is looking to fix this.

Lead by math and science teachers Donna Pitt and Ron Nilsen, the team already has many projects under way. The senior planting project was a success in involving students and bettering the campus, and the first phase of the composting plan has been put into place. Other goals include making Bellarmine a certified green school, cleaning up the solar powered pond on campus, phasing out the plastic water bottles in the Lion’s Den, selling reusable bottles, and keeping bees.

Students Kate McKain, Kelsey Bradford, Emma Gashi, Zoë Evans-Agnew, Leo Huang and Roger Xin are working on the composting and plastic bottle project. McKain said, We’re trying to promote people using lunch boxes and get them to use more reusable water bottles.”

Co-presidents and seniors Tanner Landowski and Sophia Anderson
are excited and ready to accomplish the goals for this year. When asked about the Green Team’s projects this year Anderson said, “We really want to make Bellarmine a green school, and to do that we’re going to have to look at our waste practices, place a greater importance on recycling and composting, and talk to Bellarmine’s administration and the city of Tacoma to get better policies in place.”

The shocking reality is that humans have consumed more resources in the last 50 years than in all of history. If this is trend continues, the earth in 2050 will not be a great place. Anderson said, “Global warming is a reality that we have to face.” Curious about your own footprint? Go to footprintnetwork.org and take the Footprint Calculator Quiz.

If you’re looking to make some green changes in your daily routine, or learn more about the environment, then Green Team is the place to be. Simply contact Anderson or Landowski, and come to a meeting in Donna Pitt’s room- S106.