School Cleanup Project Improves Local Environment, Inspires Environmental Stewardship Among Students

April 26th, 2022

If you’ve passed by Long Reach High School (LRHS) lately, you may have seen students walking around the campus picking up trash. Between April 1 and April 20, ninth grade Earth Science and Gifted and Talented Biology students dedicated time each day to removing litter from the school grounds, with the goal of improving the local environment and fostering a shared sense of environmental stewardship.

Known as 20for20, the inspiration for this project originally came from the Howard County Office of Sustainability, which encouraged Howard County employees to spend 20 minutes a day picking up trash. LRHS adapted the idea to have students clean up the outdoor campus for 20 minutes for 20 days. LRHS also incorporated 20for20 into its annual Watershed Report Card Project, part of the HCPSS freshman curriculum that requires students to conduct hands-on research on a local watershed and develop an action plan to improve the local environment.

Initially, LRHS science teacher and co-leader of the LRHS Watershed Project Jodi Duff says she was skeptical about how students would receive the 20for20 plan.

“I wasn’t sure how well ninth graders would take to the task of picking up trash” she says.

John Jacobs, who teaches environmental science at LRHS and co-leads the LRHS Watershed Project with Duff, also was unsure about student interest.

“If you just tell a bunch of ninth graders to go and pick up litter without giving them any real context, it’s easy to imagine getting pushback,” he says. That’s why he and Duff made a point of helping students to make connections between the cleanup and the health of their local environment.

“We wanted them to know that this was their chance to really make a difference,” he says.

That approach succeeded, says Duff, noting that when it came time to get outside and begin the 20-day cleanup, “students grabbed bags, got their gloves on, and got down to it.”

The experience has been enlightening for students, she says.

In the process of cleaning up around the school, students found a large quantity of food containers made of styrofoam, plastic, and other non-biodegradable materials. Seeing that inspired student conversations about food packaging more generally, as well as about the environmental implications of their own consumption habits.

“It really made them think about the volume of trash that food containers generate, and how they can make choices to reduce the volume they themselves generate,” Duff says.

Jacobs notes that 20for20 has also encouraged students to examine the topography of the campus, and to think more critically about the impact that the school has on its surrounding community.

“When students found trash in the woods, it got them thinking about how [it] got there. It made them realize that trash from LRHS travels and affects not only our campus, but the surrounding environment as well,” he says.

20for20 also has spurred a sense of camaraderie among students, says Halle, a freshman at LRHS.

“It has brought us together in a new and meaningful way, where we work collaboratively to make a positive impact,” she says.

At the same time, sophomore Zanny says, 20for20 seems to be reducing the amount of littering taking place at LRHS.

“It seems like the cleaner we keep our campus, the more interested people are in keeping it clean,” she notes.

Ultimately, Duff and Jacobs hope that 20for20 helps students realize the impact they can have on the environment and inspires them to make decisions that take the environment into account.

As Duff notes, “We want to foster a sense of environmental stewardship in our students. We want them to be informed environmental citizens, who understand and appreciate the value of a clean, healthy environment.”

“The 20for20 campaign has been a great success and of significant value to our community,” says Wasilewski. “Our campus is not only cleaner, but our students are learning the negative impact and effects that litter has on our local environment. I am really proud of our students!”

Since 20for20 began in April, several student groups and clubs at LRHS have signed on to join the ninth grade classes in collecting trash around the school. The 20for20 project also has been undertaken this year at Oakland Mills and Wilde Lake high schools, and the Homewood Center.