Green Committee takes aim at single-use plastics, advocates for water refill stations and solar power

Graphic by Amy Miao

One of Green Committee’s projects last year was creating posters for the trash bins around campus.

The school’s Green Committee — a roughly 30-member initiative with staff, students and parents —  is continuing to work on ambitious projects in hopes of making the school more eco-friendly and has even enjoyed a major success recently.

The district board, at its Oct. 17 meeting, has agreed to move forward on installing solar panel carports in the front parking lot. This was a notable success for the committee, which has often advocated for solar power on campus. The first deployment phase of the project could begin late in 2024.

This year, the committee has planned several new projects: They hope to convince the administration to add more hydration stations to refill water bottles and implement new policies to eliminate single-use plastics in the entire school. 

“[Eliminating single-use plastics] is the main goal because once we pass that rule, we don’t have to go through the music program or go to the sports program individually and ask them to get rid of single use plastics,” senior Kyleen Liao said. “Instead, it’ll be just one whole thing that can be in effect across the entire school.”

 The committee, led by senior George Hu, is hopeful that these new efforts will contribute to the wider impact they have already made on campus since it was founded in 2021 by Class of ‘22 alumna Cici Xu along with other students, faculty and parents. 

Last year, one of the Green Committee’s projects was creating laminated posters to sort the trash, compost and recycling bins. They also influenced other groups to follow more eco-friendly practices — for instance, during the Saratoga Music Boosters’ annual Pancake Breakfast event, single-use plastic utensils were replaced with compostable items. In addition, the cafeteria has also shifted to using mainly recyclable or compostable dishes and utensils.

“It’s amazing because a year ago, we hardly had anything that was recyclable,” assistant principal Matt Torrens said.

However, committee members such as Liao are still concerned about the overall lack of eco-awareness in the community.

“I used to live in Germany. In Europe, the practices about the environment are very different,” Liao said. “They’re a lot more cognizant about what to use and how to limit waste. When I moved here, I noticed that wasn’t something implemented here.”

As a result, the committee also plans to work on outreach to students and staff about recycling — Liao has noticed that students, especially underclassmen, are often unaware about what can go in waste versus recycling despite signs that the committee has put up. Their current outreach projects are an upcoming speaker series, waste bin posters and Instagram reels, and a blurb in principal Greg Louie’s Friday newsletter about how to use the trash bins.

Many of these projects, however, do not come without challenges. 

Because the water fountains sometimes have plumbing systems in concrete, it is expensive to redo all the plumbing, making it difficult to install new hydration stations. The committee is not fundraising for this change to occur, but rather encouraging the school’s administration to provide the school and its students with this change. Nevertheless, the committee is ready to continue making the school’s campus environmentally friendly.

“We’re just really excited for this for this year and we have a lot of great ideas,” Liao said. “We have a lot of fun projects coming up and we’re excited to get that done.”