Green Teamers Teach Elementary Students about Composting

On Friday, February 10, several Green Team students spent the afternoon teaching about composting to the students at Country View Elementary School in Winfield. The principal of Country View invited the Green Team to come and present as part of a rotation of hands on activities for the students in grade Kindergarden through 4^th grade.

Green Team students Sydnee Nelson and Tendai Kwaramba developed a presentation focused on composting. They taught about the importance of recycling and that organic materials can be turned into compost which is good for gardens. Nelson and Kwaramba borrowed some compost from Alex Gottlob, local landscaping businessman and allowed the students to dig around in it and see what materials they could find.

The same 20 minute presentation was made to seven different groups of students throughout the afternoon. Green Team students Shea Wilson and Daniel Van Sickle also participated.

City of Winfield Aids Southwestern Recycling Program

Last week, the Green Team had to scramble to find somewhere to recycle all of the recyclable materials collected at Southwestern College. The college has a “contract” with a recycling company out of Wichita. The company is supposed to pick up the recycling from the college once every two weeks. For some reason, the company has failed to continue with its regularly scheduled pickups.  According to Jason Speegle, Green Team Director, “they have not collected the recycling from the college since January 2. Our campus produces and collects a lot of recycling each week, so our recycling shed was certainly overflowing.” 

Southwestern made the decision to contract with this particular recycling company because they offered free pickup and single stream recycling, meaning the recycling did not need to be sorted. “The City of Winfield has a great recycling program and we were very happy with the recycling service that they have provided to the college over the years. However, as our recycling volumes have grown, the sorting of the recycling became overwhelming,” said Speegle.

The City of Winfield stepped in to help the college with its overflow of recycling. Green Team students and plant operations employees, in 6 pickups and a U-haul truck hauled the nearly 1,620 cubic feet of recyclables from the college out the Winfield fairgrounds. A crew from the correctional facility sorted some of the items into a large container that was eventually transported up to Waste Connections in Wichita for recycling. “We feel so fortunate to have city employees who are willing to work with the college and our students. The City of Winfield really bailed us out. I cannot thank them enough,” says Speegle.

Southwestern is currently looking for a recycling system. Protecting the single stream system is important to Speegle. “We would really like to avoid returning to the sorting method of collecting recycling, especially during the school year. My hope is to figure out a temporary solution to get us through May and then reevaluate during the summer.”

Southwestern to Install Second Wind Turbine

Southwestern College is one of four sites to have been selected to receive Wind for Schools grants this year. Last November, Green Team Director, Jason Speegle applied for the grant which is arranged by Kansas State University and funded in part by Westar. “I felt that we [Southwestern] had a very strong application. We had letters of support from the City of Winfield, USD 465, and Cates Supply (local wind turbine installers). I also received unwavering support from the administration of the college as well as the plant operations director,” according to Speegle.  Speegle says that he and the administration of the college learned a lot during the installation of the wind turbine in the summer of 2011 and that knowledge will certainly aid them in the process of installing this next turbine.

The details of the installation are not yet fully known. According to Speegle, “the announcement that Southwestern had been selected as a site was made a couple of weeks ago. We will receive more details in the near future.” Due to zoning, the site of the wind turbine installation will be near the new plant operations building in the corner of Warren St. and Viking Blvd. Southwestern will choose the type of turbine that is to be installed. The turbine will either be a Skystream 2.4, identical to the turbine installed at Southwestern in August of 2011 or a Raum 3.5, a slightly more powerful turbine.

Circle High School, Otis-Bison Junior/Senior High School, and Western Plains High School were the other three sites selected to receive wind turbine grants this year.