Lynnhurst students get lesson in living green

SAUGUS – Students at Lynnhurst Elementary School got a crash course in green living Tuesday morning, as members of the nonprofit group Change is Simple taught them about recycling, reusing and even composting.Change is Simple founders Lauren and Patrick Belmonte led students in a series of games that emphasized ways they can help cut down on the amount of waste they produce every day.Patrick, who is Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the group, said the lessons he and his wife teach are about sustainability and help supplement what he sees as a lack of environmental education in schools.?We?ve worked with kids for a long time,” he said. “We have a lot of friends that are educators and we saw there was a real lack of environmental curriculum with the kids. What was being done was a lot of biological research and lessons on animals, which is all great, but I think there?s a way we can all make an impact every single day.”After teaching about which household items can be recycled or reused, the pair had the students break into groups and form lines. From there they dumped a pile of trash in front of them containing everything from soda cans to old shirts, to whole fruits and vegetables. At the other end of the gym they placed bins marked “recycling,” “compost” and “reduce” as the kids had to race to place the proper items in each bin.Some items like cell phones were a little tricky to figure out for some of the students, but Patrick said they can easily be donated to groups like Cell Phones for Soldiers.?They take used cell phones and send them to soldiers protecting our country to allow them to talk to their families,” Patrick told the students.Patrick said the activities revolve around situations kids experience on a daily basis.?These programs are focused on the things they encounter every day,” said Patrick. “We do programs on water conservation, energy conservation, we do a social aspect of sustainability.”After the race, Patrick brought out a big, black garbage bag filled with what he called the “water bottle snake.” The snake was made of 228 plastic water bottles connected end-to-end that he passed out to the students, who were standing in a big circle around the gym.The water bottles represented the amount of bottles one person uses per year on average. With around 70 students holding the snake, that worked out to be nearly 16,000 bottles wasted every year by the students and 64,000 if you count each of their families.Patrick said that many bottles would make a water bottle snake more than 10 miles long.It?s this reason Patrick and Lauren emphasized students and their families use reusable water bottles.?We?re very lucky in the U.S. to have very safe tap water,” said Lauren. “We can just fill up our water bottles and not have to use single-use plastic bottles.”The students also learned about composting and how food scraps provide nutrients for plants, and how plastic shopping bags can be returned to the grocery store instead of being thrown away.When the assembly was over, the Belmontes quizzed the students on what they had learned and reminded them that everything they went over that day could be done immediately.?You guys can start doing this right now when you get back to class,” she said. “It?s a great way to help the environment.”As the students filed back to class, Lauren said the kids were a pleasure to work with Tuesday.?They were great,” she said. “They were really responsive and really high-energy. We try to make sure our programs are that way and are hands-on for the kids. They do know a lot too, which is encouraging. They recognized a lot, but they also learned a lot. It gets them really thinking about their connection to their own community and ultimately their environment.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].