The Stuyvesant Robotics team and the Students Taking Resolute Initiative to Vindicate the Environment (STRIVE) club are currently holding an electronics recycling drive outside room 209. The drive, which began on Tuesday, February 2 and does not yet have an end date, encourages students and faculty members to drop off their electronic trash into a bin near the room. The objects are stored in the robotics lab and later picked up by The 4th Bin, a company that specializes in recycling electronics safely by making sure that all toxic components are disposed of properly. Broken or unwanted electronics such as mp3 players, computers, cameras and cell phones are all acceptable donation items.

The Robotics team got the idea for a recycling drive from its robotics organization, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST). FIRST was founded in 1989 to inspire students to get involved with the engineering and technology fields. Every year, FIRST gives the teams a game challenge, and this year it was to support environmentally sound practices. “Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, presented the league with a challenge to recycle,” sophomore and Robotics team Marketing member Doron Shapiro said.

The Robotics team and STRIVE decided to begin recycling electronics because of the lack of awareness about electronic waste. “It’s a good start, but people need to be more aware of where their e-waste is going,” biology teacher and STRIVE faculty advisor Jerry Citron said.

However, recycling electronics has complicated protocols. Ink cartridges must be disposed of differently than printers, as well as other large electronics. “It’s easier in many cases to use virgin materials even though it’s very bad for the environment,” Citron said.

The Robotics team decided to get other clubs in the Stuyvesant community involved with the drive and contacted the environmentally-oriented STRIVE. According to Shapiro, the Robotics team considered getting Key Club, a community service club, involved as well but did not have enough time to contact the club. The two clubs have been working together to get the word out about recycling electronics. ”It’s important to educate people of how and where they could recycle electronic items,” senior and Robotics team Marketing President Betsy Soukup said.

“A lot of Stuyvesant people are environmentally conscious,” freshman Rosa Park said. “As people learn about it, more people will do it, especially if outlets like Facebook are utilized.”

The team is considering expanding its recycling drive to materials other than electronics, including cans, paper and other items. “If it’s successful, there is no reason we should not branch out into other things,” Soukup said. “At least until the end of the semester, we’re just going to focus on electronic items, but if it’s successful, I don’t see why future people on the team can’t expand it.”

Students expressed positive reactions to the recycling drive.

“Every day, students use an enormous amount of paper, and so much of that paper is just thrown in the trash,” freshman Danny Funaro said.

“By recycling, we make sure to take better care of our surroundings especially in the long run,” sophomore Rudi-Ann Miller said.

According to sophomore Ashini Ganesalignam, recycling has a definite place in the Stuyvesant community. “We’ve been taught since kindergarten to reduce, reuse, and recycle,” she said. “Now as we get older, we see how it is significant.”