Reducing pollution on small and large scales

Reducing pollution on small and large scales

We are a class of 10 students at the New America School in Thornton in Zoraida Martinez's leadership program. We have been working on getting civically engaged and mitigating the effects of climate change by starting a recycling system at our school.

We created fliers, educated our classmates, got bins, do bi-weekly collections and take the entire school's recycling to collection facilities; this is hard work, but we know that it is necessary for our health and future, which are being threatened by climate change.

The city does not provide this service for us; there is currently no way to get recycling to high-occupancy buildings in Thornton. As a result, we are investing a lot of time, energy and resources into ensuring that we are not adding to the degradation of our planet. We are planting our seed and doing our part, so we expect the government to do the same.

There is currently a bill at the state legislature called HB-1261 Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution. This will ensure that industries that are adding the most contamination will be held accountable for the damage they are doing and set common-sense regulations. If we, as high school students, can work towards protecting our environment and safety, our government can do more to safeguard our communities.

Thank you.

Zoraida Martinez' class: Aiyisha Medina, Aiyanna Medina, Valerie Alemán, Eunice de Santiago, José Rabelo, Lindsey Romo, Joel Quezada, Marvin Santos, Nikita Gonzalez