When children return to Warwick River Christian School, Newport News, Virginia, this fall, Administrator Greg Sommers has a challenge for them: Which classroom can recycle the most material?

The school has signed on to a single stream recycling plan which will enable the children to place a mixture of paper, cardboard, cans and bottles all in one bin. The recyclables will then go to a high-tech separating facility at TFC Recycling, a local company with an award-winning school recycling program that has diverted more than two million pounds of recyclables from landfills in the Virginia Beach area. 

“We are part of a Mennonite community that values stewardship of the land and natural resources,” Sommers says. “Like many schools, we go through a lot of paper and other easily-recycled items that were simply being tossed into the garbage. Recycling options, which were less cost-effective in years past, are now affordable enough for us to adopt.” 

Children at Warwick have also been doing projects on garbage and water pollution in light of the call to care for creation. Middle school students wrote skits and in one case, a puppet-based music video, to show the impact garbage has on our water supply. 

 Warwick River Christian serves children ages 3 through 8th grade. The school is a ministry of local Mennonite congregations serving mainly children of other faiths or no faith.