We’re one of the only high schools in this area with a compost bin. Even having a recycling bin is a commodity many don’t share. So why does it seem that many students simply ignore this opportunity? The answer is more obvious than you may think.

When people, especially students, do something as mundane as tossing a wrapper into the trash, often the train of thought stops there. You’ve put it in a bin, not your problem anymore, right? Wrong. Did you know that the U.S. produces 12 percent of the world’s trash? That may seem like a small number, but that’s 4.5 pounds per person per day. That adds up to 10,549,350,000 pounds of garbage every single week.

So, what can you do? The first step to improving is educating yourself, so congrats, you’ve already started by reading this article. By moving one extra step to the recycling bin, you’ve kept a piece of plastic from existing in a landfill for up to 450 years. By composting your leftovers, you’re providing fertilizer for farmers and homes for essential detritivores (animals that feed on dead things) that make the very ground you’re walking on. Even the smallest separation can make the world so much better.

You may have seen the signs next to the bins in the lunchroom that have diagrams of what goes in which bin, but have you ever actually read them? And who put them there? What about the dedicated people who stand there near the end of lunch to make sure as much as possible gets put in the correct bin? They don’t do it for fun, they do it because they’re in HOPE Club, or Helping Our Planet Earth Club. Run by science teacher Michelle Bakowski, the HOPE club and AP Environmental Sciences run our school’s compost program, doing their best to educate both students and staff on what they can do to help.

However, even having people dedicated to making sure trash is sorted correctly doesn’t stop some people from just dumping everything in one bin. “People just don’t really care very much. Some people do (care) and it’s very nice to be able to help them, but it’s kind of hard to monitor four groups of garbage bins all around the cafeteria,” HOPE club vice president, Esther Taddei, said. “Most people just dump their trays into the garbage even when you have lunch monitors there.”

To learn more about our trash habits, we volunteered to monitor the bins for a few lunches, and what we found was fascinating. Most people sort their trash correctly, but the ones who don’t practically counteract the efforts made by others entirely by throwing things like paper bags full of food into the recycling, full cafeteria salads (box and all) into the compost, and half-drunk sodas into the trash without concern for who has to dig that out and separate it into the correct bins.

All that we ask is that you take an extra moment of thought to separate your trash, and if you aren’t sure where an item goes, don’t be afraid to ask one of the HOPE Club members near the bins, they’d be happy to help. HOPE Club meets every Friday at lunch in 2409. They have a park cleanup in March if you want to do your part for the community, and you can reach them at @shorewood.hope on Instagram.